NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 103 



unequally arched. Scales cycloid and of moderate or rather large size. 

 Lateral line simple, concurrent with the back. Head compressed, and of mode- 

 rate or rather small size. Forehead n parly flat, or little convex transversely. 

 Eyes submediau. Nostrils double, moderately approximated to each other. 

 Suborbital bones not crossing the cheek nor articulated with the preoperculum. 

 Preorbital bone moderate, or rather large. Preopercular, opercular, suboper- 

 cular and interopercular bones normally developed. Mouth moderate, cleft on 

 the sides. Intermaxillary bones with the ascending processes variable in de- 

 velopment. Maxillary bones expanded towards their ends and behind the 

 intermaxillaries at the ends. Teeth variable in form and position. Branchi- 

 ostegal membrane generally extended more or less behind under the throat, 

 and free. Branchiostegal rays normally six, rarely five and exceptionally three. 

 Dorsal fin extending along the entire back, and with the spinous portion nearly 

 as much or more developed than the soft. Anal fin commencing nearly under 

 the first soft dorsal rays, and short or little oblong ; spinous ray three. Caudal 

 fin entire, or emarginated. Pectoral fins normally inserted on the sides, with 

 the inferior rays well developed, simply articulated and not branched. Ventral 

 fins inserted considerably behind the pectorals and with one spine and five 

 branched rays. 



The vertebral column is composed (in Cirrhitina;) of the normal or nearly 



normal number of vertebra? (^) or a moderately increased number (in Latri- 



14 16 . 



dina?, 5jj ; in Haplodactylince, said by Richardson to be jj in Dactylosargus arcti- 



dens.) The stomach is csecal, and a few (4 to 5) pyloric appendages are 

 present. The air bladder is sometimes absent (most Cirrhiliuce and Chironema- 

 tinee) ; or present and simple (most Haplodactylince) ; or lobed or fringed (most 

 Latridince.) 



This family is a very distinct and perhaps a natural one, although its 

 several groups or subfamilies offer rather peculiar characters and decided vari- 

 ations. The chief characters by which those various groups are united, are 

 the position of the ventral fins very considerably behind the bases of the pectoral, 

 and the simple, thickened and produced rays of the pectoral fins ; the branchiostegal 

 membrane is also generally more ample beneath than in those forms which 

 most resemble the Cirrhitoids in external appearance. In the artificial arrange- 

 ment of Cuvier and hi? disciples, in which the fishes with the typical or percoid 

 form were arranged according to the presence or absence of palatal teeth and 

 of opercular armature, the members of the present family were partly referred 

 to the Percoids and partly to the Sciaenoids, with which they have very little 

 affinity. Dr. Gray appears to have been the first to propose the family which 

 Sir John Richardson was afterwards inclined to adopt, although in his essay 

 on " Ichthyology," in the Encyclopa-dia Britannica, he has referred Cirrhites, 

 Aplodactylus and Chironemus as the first of thegerera, to bis family of Therapo- 

 nidae, which family certainly is, as he admits, " a rather heterogeneous assem- 

 blage of Percoids, brought together by the single character of six branchios- 

 tegals." The other genera, Chcilodactylvs and Latris, are placed by him after 

 Polynemus, and constitute with it his family of Polynemidae. 



Dr. Bleeker has adopted the family of " Cirrhitoidei," aDd divided it into 

 three subfamilies, Cinhitiformes, Ilaplodactylifotmes and Cheilodactyhformes. 

 Chironemus has been once placed in the first subfamily, and again, as Threp- 

 terius of Richardson, in the third, Bleeker not having perceived their affinity 

 to each other. 



Dr. Giinther has a family of " Cirrhitidre," which is naturally constituted, 

 but he has placed the Haplodactylns in a peculiar " group" or subfamily among 

 the Sparidae, to which it has apparently little true affinity. 



The Cirrhitoids, so far as known, are peculiar to the torrid and temperate 

 portions of the Pacific Ocean and its indentations. The CirrhitincB are princi- 



1862.] 



