682 TELEOSTEI 



and their long posteriorly attenuate body ending in a large 

 forked caudal fin, give them a peculiar appearance. 



Fam. 9. Bramidae. Praemaxillaries small, not or but feebly 

 protractile ; maxillaries large, scaly. Vertebrae 42 to 47, the 

 praecaudal without transverse processes, but mostly with haemal 

 arches to which the ribs are attached, the epipleurals being 

 inserted on the centra. Body deep ; scales moderate or large, 

 strongly imbricate, with processes which, in certain parts at least, 

 serve to connect the rows of scales. Dorsal and anal elongate, 

 some or all of the rays simple, but not forming true spines. 

 Pectoral inserted rather low down the side, freely movable 

 upwards and downwards. Pseudobranchiae present. 



Pelagic fishes, often descending to great depths. About 12 

 species are known, 1 referable to 6 genera : Brama, Taractes, 

 Pterycombus, Pteraclis, Bentenia, and Steinegeria. Taractes, often 

 confounded with Brama, differs from it not only in the larger, 

 keeled scales, but also in the protractile mouth and in the much 

 greater development of most of the ribs, which form curved 

 lamellae of great width. 2 Pteraclis is very remarkable for the 

 enormous, sail-like dorsal and anal fins. 



DIVISION III. ZEORHOMBI. 



Aberrant, strongly compressed Perciformes, with very short 

 praecaudal region, modified much as in the Fiat-Fishes, culminat- 

 ing in asymmetrical forms, and characterised by the combination 

 of an increased number (7 to 9) of ventral rays, with absence 

 of hypural spine (by which the Berycidae are excluded), or by 

 asymmetry of the skull in the forms in which the spine of the 

 ventral fin has been lost. 



Among the symmetrical forms, the existing Zeidae agree with 

 the Berycidae in having more than five soft rays to the ventral 

 fins, and are probably derived, together with the Eocene 

 Amphistiidae, from some common ancestral group still to be 

 discovered in Cretaceous beds. These Zeidae have much in 

 common with the Pleuronectidae, 3 and might be regarded as 



1 Monographs by Lunel, Mem. Soc. Phys. Geneve, xviii. 1865, p. 165, and by 

 Liitken, Spolia Atlantica, i. 1880, p. 491. 



2 Troschel, Sitzb. Ver. Preuss. Rheinl. xx. 1863, p. 51 (Brama raii and B. 

 longipinnis). 



3 Cf. Thilo, Zool. Anz. 1902, p. 305. 



