3O2 E. C. STARKS. 



fins, and thus it has not even the technical characteristics of the 

 true Acanthopterygians. Doubtless the parentage of the stock 

 is to be looked for in that great suborder ; but the divergence of 

 the known forms has been so great that at present it cannot be 

 certainly predicated whereabouts to find it." 



I have examined skeletons of Cottoid, Blennioid, and Gobioid 

 fishes with small results. The families Batrachididas and Calliony- 

 midre offer some slight indications of relationship to the Gobie- 

 socidas, and the weight of evidence is thrown towards the former 

 family by the young of some or all of them having a ventral 

 sucking disk just behind the base of the pectorals. The family 

 Batrachidida; l further resembles the Gobiesocidae in having the 

 suborbital ring reduced to a small preorbital bone, only very 

 small parapophyses present posteriorly, no myodome, and a single 

 superior pharyngeal present on each side. As opposing the idea 

 of relationship the Batrachididre have five long actinosts, the post- 

 temporal forms an integral part of the cranium, the palatine is 

 normally joined to the pterygoid, and the mesopterygoid, met- 

 apterygoid, alisphenoid, and basibranchials are present. 



The family Callynomidse ~ resembles the Gobiesocidee in having 

 no mesopterygoid or metapterygoid, thus leaving the symplectic 

 to form part of the anterior border of the cheek bones, in having 

 no myodome or suborbitals, in the ventrals being widely sepa- 

 rated, as well as in the general form of the body. The Calliony- 

 midae, however, possess some important and well marked char- 

 acters not possessed by the Gobiesocidae, and these probably 

 more than counterbalance the characters held in common. 

 These characters are briefly : a spinous dorsal present ; the 

 ethmoid extending back and forming a bony interocular septum ; 

 the frontals reduced and occupying little more than the inter- 

 orbital space ; the posttemporal forming an integral part of the 

 cranium ; the actinosts all abutting against the hypocoracoid ; 

 the hypercoracoid foramen between the coracoid elements cutting 

 an equal notch from each ; the palato-quadrate arch normal ; 

 three superior pharyngeals present on each side ; basibranchials 



1 In this family the following genera were examined : Batrachoides, Opsamis and 

 Porichthys. 



2 Calleonymus was the only genus examined. 



