136 The Grayling and the Smelt 
with large teeth, distensible muscles, and an extraordinary 
power of swallowing other fishes, scarcely surpassed by Chzas- 
modon or Saccopharynx. Evermannellus (Odontostomus, the latter 
name preoccupied) and Omosudis are the principal genera. 
The Paralepide are reduced allies of Plagyodus, slender, 
silvery, with small fins and fang-like jaws. As in Plagyodus, 
the adipose fin is developed and there are small luminous dots. 
The species are few and mostly northern; one of them, Sudis 
ringens, is known only from a single specimen taken by the 
present writer from the stomach of a hake (Merluccius produc- 
tus), the hake in turn swallowed whole by an albacore in the 
Santa Barbara Channel. The Sudis had been devoured by the 
hake, the hake by the albacore, and the albacore taken on 
the hook before the feeble Sudis had been digested. 
Perhaps allied to the Plagyodontide is also the large family 
of Enchodontide, widely represented in the Cretaceous rocks of 
Fic. 97.—Eurypholis sulcidens Pictet, restored. Family Enchodontide. Upper 
Cretaceous of Mt. Lebanon. (After Woodward, as E. borssieri.) 
Syria, Europe, and Kansas. The body in this group is elongate, 
the teeth very strong, and the dorsal fin short. Enchodus 
lewesiensts is found in Mount Lebanon, Halec sternbergi in the 
German Cretaceous, and many species of Enchodus in Kansas; 
Cimolichthys dirus in North Dakota. 
Remotely allied to these groups is the extinct family of 
Dercetide from the Cretaceous of Germany and Syria. These , 
are elongate fishes, the scales small or wanting, but with two 
or more series of bony scutes along the flanks. In Dercetis 
scutatus the scutes are large and the dorsal fin is very long. Other 
‘genera are Leptotrachelus and Pelargorhynchus. Dr. Boulenger 
places the Dercetid@ in the order Heteromi. This is an expression 
of the fact that their relations are still unknown. Probably 
