272 DR. W. G. RIDEWOOB ON THE 



Osteoglossidffi, because of certain cliaracters of the brancliial 

 skeleton. 



As regards tlie relatioPiS considered by different writers to 

 exist between the Osteoglossidse and other families of Teleostean 

 fishes, one is not justified in all cases in concluding that the 

 families which are placed nearest to the Osteoglossidse are 

 regarded by the author as the families most nearly allied to it, 

 for the necessity of treating families in linear series when writing 

 about them tends to obscure many natural relationships of which 

 the author is fully cognisant. It may be noted, however, that the 

 family Osteoglossidse is placed by GriiQther (Study of Fishes, 1880) 

 between the Clupeidse on the one hand and the Pantodontidse, 

 Hyodontidse, Gronorhynchidse, Haplochitinidse, Percopsidse, and 

 Salmonidse on the other. Gill (Smithson. Miscell. Coll. no 247, 

 1872, p. 15) gives the follovriug sequence of families: — Chara- 

 <.'inidse, Percopsidse, Haplochitonidse, Galaxiidse, Osteoglossidse, 

 jS^otopteridse, Halosauridse, and Chauliodontidse ; and Boulenger 

 (Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (7) xiii. 1904, p. 164) the sequence: — 

 Elopidse, Albulidse, Mormyridse, Hyodontidse, Notopterida?, 

 Osteoglossidse, Pantodontidas, Cteuothrissidss, Phractolsemidse, 

 Saurodontidse, Chirocentridse, Clupeidse. Smith "Woodward 

 (Brit. Mus. Cat. Poss. Pishes, iv. 1901, p. vii) states that the 

 Osteoglossidse are closely related to the Albulidse. 



The suborder Malacopterygii as restricted by Boulenger (I. c. 

 pp. 163-165) consists of a natural assemblage of twenty-one 

 families, beginning with those extinct families that lie on the 

 border-line between the Oanoids and Teleosteans, and ending 

 with specialised families like the Alepocephalidse, Stomiatidse, 

 Gouorhynchidse, and Cromeriidse. Looking through this list, I 

 should be disposed to associate the Osteoglossidse with the 

 Pantodontidse for reasons given on p. 276, and to regard the 

 next nearest family to be the Albulidse. The conclusion is arrived 

 at by a consideration of the crauiological features mainly, but the 

 characters of the other parts of the skeleton and of the soft parts 

 of the body, so far as they are known to me, do not militate 

 xtgainstthe suggestion that the Osteoglossidse and Albulidse have 

 descended from a common stock. 



