NATURAL SCIENCES OP PHILADELPHIA. 189 



oral cleft rectilinear ; teeth of the upper jaw minute ; of the lower, in front, 

 enlarged, but unequal, elongated, recurved and acute; behind minute; at the 

 symphisis directed forwards; small, acute and hooked, and in a double row on 

 the tongue ; palate smooth ; caudal very small, convex ; pectorals inserted 

 very low, linear, of few rays closely connected ; ventrals scarcely behind the 

 middle, with about six rays, the external (except the outermost) of which are 

 produced. Intestine with a flexure. 



Type. Malacosteus niger, Ayres. 



"The principal points on which" Mr. Ayres would "particularly insist, as 

 characteristic of the species and the genus, are the remarkable small size of 

 the head, and, in contrast with this, the immense developement of the whole 

 facial and branchial apparatus, and all that pertains to the mouth and throat, 

 the singular and but partially explained organ on the cheek ; and, most of all, 

 the embryonic condition of the entire osseous system." In all respects perhaps 

 even the last the genus resembles Stomias. Sir John Richardson has suggested 

 that the want of ossification may be due to the preservation of the fish in 

 weak alcohol, but I am scarcely disposed to accept that hypothesis, and would 

 even believe that Stomias itself may be found to have an imperfectly ossified 

 skeleton, but not, perhaps, in so marked degree as Malacosteus. 



In the consideration of the faunistic anomalies here enumerated, we may be 

 aided in a solution of the causes by the consideration of nearly similar peculi- 

 arities in the Ichthyology of the Scandinavian seas. There alone in the more 

 northern seas, species of the genera Deryx and Batrachus, closely allied to or 

 undistinguishable from Mediterranean or tropical species, are found, and there 

 also has been discovered Pterycombus, a genus whose affinities are with the trop- 

 ical Pteraclides. No representatives are found at intermediate places along the 

 European coasts. Again, along the Rhode Island and neighboring coasts have 

 already been found Sarothrodus, Priacanthus, and Hyporthodus, the last closely 

 related to Serranus. All the places enumerated are near the borders of 

 the Gulf Stream. How far the distribution of these genera is thereby affected 

 it is not my intention to now discuss, my desire being simply to draw attention 

 to the facts. Further details regarding their balhy metrical, as well as geograph- 

 ical, distribution are desirable. 



Synopsis of the CYCLOPTEROIDS of Eastern North America. 



BY THEODORE GILL. 



The description of a new species of Liparis, from the Arctic seas, is here 

 submitted, and attention is called to some points in the synonymy of other 

 species of the genus which require elucidation. To complete a view of the 

 family to which they belong, I enumerate the Cyclopterinse. The family is re- 

 stricted, with Gunther, to those fishes whose suctorial disk is fi rmed by the 

 union of the ventral fins, and which have numerous pyloric caica, as it is not 

 evident that there is any close relation between such and the Gobiesocoids. 



CYCLOPTERW.E, Bon. 

 Cvclopteroids with a ventricose body and two dorsal fins, the first of which is 

 mall, and composed of spines ; the second, as well as anal, short, and ob- 

 liquely opposed to each other; and with the caudal vertebrae in scarcely in- 

 creased number, (Vert. 12+16 pm.) 



Genus CYCLOPTERUS, L. 

 Lumpus, Cuv. 



Cyclopterinse with dorsal region elevated in front, larger plates disposed in 

 an unpaired dorsal row and two lateral and one abdominal on each side ; the eyes 

 small and anterior ; the branchial apertures just above the pectoral fins; the 

 spinous dorsal almost concealed, and the ventral disk small. 



1864.] 



