6o8 TELEOSTEI 



that it is not confined to fresh waters, but occurs also in the 

 sea. Specimens were observed by Mr. Paipert Vallentin in the 

 Falkland Islands, where the Fish is known to the inhabitants 

 as " Smelts," in shoals in the shallow water along the shore; and, 

 according to Mr. F. E. Clarke, the same species, in New Zealand, 

 periodically descends to the sea, where it spawns, from January 

 to March, and returns from March to May. A marine species 

 has recently been discovered at the Chatham Islands. In New 

 Zealand, the Galaxias were called " Trout " by the settlers before 

 the introduction of Salmonids, whilst the fry of G. attenuatus are 

 eaten as " Whitebait." The largest species reach tlie length of 

 a foot. Xeoclmnna, from New Zealand, differs from Galaxias 

 in the absence of ventral fins ; it has been found in burrows, 

 which it excavates at a distance from Avater. 



Fam. 2. Haplochitonidae. — Small fresh -water Trout-like 

 Fishes, agreeing in most respects with the Galaxiidae, to 

 which they are unquestionably closely related, differing only in 

 the greater extent of the praemaxillaries, which exclude the 

 maxillary from the oral border, in the double basis cranii (the 

 prootics uniting under the brain, leaving a canal between them 

 and the parasphenoid), in the shorter parapophyses, which, like the 

 neural arches of the praecaudal vertebrae, are autogenous, and 

 in the presence of a small adipose dorsal fin, opposed to the anal. 



Two genera : Hai^lochiton, naked, with a single species from 

 ChiH, the southern extremity of South America, and the Falk- 

 land Islands, and Prototrodes, covered with small scales, of which 

 one species inhabits Queensland, another South Australia, and 

 a third New Zealand. In Rajjlochiton, the urogenital orifice 

 of both sexes is produced into a cylindrical tube, which lies 

 concealed in a groove in front of the anal fin. 



Fam. 3. Enchodontidae. — Margin of the upper jaw formed 

 by the praemaxillaries and the maxillaries, the latter sometimes 

 toothed like the former. Frontals in contact with the supra- 

 occipital ; basis cranii simple. Pdbs sessile ; praecaudal verte- 

 brae without transverse processes. Eayed dorsal fin never much 

 extended ; sometimes an adipose fin behind it. Scales delicate or 

 absent, but occasional longitudinal series of scutes occur, the 

 dorsal series, when present, being unpaired. 



Cretaceous Fishes alhed to, and apparently more generalised 

 than, the Esocidae and Scopelidae. Numerous remains from 



