518 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OP 



Head moderate, oblong, with the cheeks more or less tumid. Profile in front 

 of eye, convex or slightly decurved. Eyes chiefly anterior. Mouth moderate 

 and oblique. Spinous dorsal fin small and distinct from the soft one. The 

 rays of the latter and of the anal are branched. 



The subfamily of the Nototheniinae is at once recognized by the interrupted 

 lateral line as well as by the form of its body. The first dorsal fin is generally 

 composed of slender spines like those of the Gobioids, but in one genus the 

 spines are robust, acute and short. 



The representatives of the group are confined to the southern latitudes, 

 and are principally inhabitants of the sea bounding the Falkland Islands and 

 Kergnelen's Land. 



Genus Notothenia Richardson. 

 Synonymy. 

 Notothenia Richardson, Ichthyology of the Erebus and Terror, p. 5. 



" Gdnther, Catalogue of the Acanthopterygian Fishes, &c, vol. ii., 



p. 260. , 



Notothentina corporis portione abdomiuale breve, capite breviore ; pinna 

 dorsali prima radiis 5 6, gracilibus et flexilibus ; pinnis pectoralibus cauda- 

 lique convexis. 



Body robust, with a stout and short caudal peduncle, and with the preanal 

 or abdominal region shorter than the head. Scales rather small and ciliated. 

 Head more or less scaly, with the skin above soft and naked, or covered with 

 scales. Pores of the nape, oculo-scapular grooves, preoperculum and inter- 

 orbital regions developed. Posterior nostrils subtubular. Teeth of the jaws 

 uniserial on the sides, at the symphisis generally pauciserial. First dorsal 

 fin about as high as long, with its spines flexible, five to six in number. Anal 

 fin commencing under or near the middle of the pectoral fins, and distant from 

 the ventrals less than the head's length ; the distance is less than half the 

 length of the fin. Caudal fin convex behind. Pectoral fins large and also 

 convex behind. Ventral fins with its third or fourth rays longest, or both 

 subequal. 



Type. Notothenia coriiceps Richardson. 



The genus Notothenia is here really retained with the same limits as were 

 assigned to it by Sir John Richardson, but that gentleman referred to it with 

 doubt a species which has apparently very little affinity with the typical 

 species, and which has been in this synopsis of the family accepted as the 

 type of a distinct genus. The present contains fishes whose length varies from 

 about five to fifteen inches. The species closely resemble each other in physi- 

 ognomy and general appearance, but yet differ remarkably in the extent of 

 the squamation of the head, there being every variation from almost entire 

 nudity to nearly perfect investment of scales; the preopercular margin, the 

 snout and region behind the supramaxillary bones, are, however, always naked. 

 Although there is scarcely ever so great a variation in the distribution of the 

 scales in one natural genus, I am quite unable to find any other characters 

 which are coincident with the modifications of the squamation that have any 

 pretensions to generic importance. As there is also a strict gradation between 

 the extremes of nudity and squamation, it would appear that there can be little 

 doubt of the generic identity of all the well known species. 



There are, however, two forms which are imperfectly known, that manifest 

 considerable variation from their congeners in the relative extent of the second 

 dorsal and anal fins. In one the anal fin has several more rays than the dorsal, 

 while in the typical Notothenice the number is either somewhat less or equal. 

 In the second, the anal fin has only two-thirds as many rays as the soft dorsal. 

 That modification appears to be also accompanied by the presence of a wider 

 cranium. Whether those differences are indicative of other modifications of 



[Dec. 



