BY J. DOUGLAS OGILBY. 181 



present. Pyloric appendages in small number. No bony articu- 

 lation between the infraorbital bone and the angle of the pre- 

 opercle. Premaxillary processes short ; occipital crest feeble. 

 Caudal portion of the vertebral column very long. Vertebrse 69 

 (15 + 54) in Cepola macrojjhthal.Tnus. 



Band-like fishes of moderate size, inhabiting the Mediterranean, 

 north-eastern Atlantic, north-western Pacific, Indian and south- 

 eastern Australian seas. 



Two genera are now recognised, and though the first only has 

 as yet been discovered within our limits, the second, having two 

 representatives in the Indian and a third in the Malayan seas, 

 will perhaps eventually be found on our north-western coast. To 

 facilitate the recognition of the two forms, the following brief 

 analysis is given : — 



Preopercle entii'e ; scales non-imbricate ; head wholly 



naked ... ... ... ... ... ... Cepola* 



Preopercle strongly spinate or denticulate ; scales imbricate ; 

 head partially scaly ... ... ... Acanthocepola. 



With respect to the systematic position of the Cepolidce, it is 

 generally conceded at the present day that they fall most fitly 

 between the Gobioidei and jBletinioidei, or to be more exact, 

 between the Dragonets ( C allionymido', ) and the scaly blenniids 

 (Clinida'). The former family, however, along with the allied 

 Platypteridre, both of which have been associated by most British 

 and continental writers with the true gobies and eleotrins in the 

 somewhat heterogeneous family Gobiida' of Cuvier, Giinther, and 

 others, diff'er from that family in so many important characters 

 (such as the enormously protractile premaxillaries, the greatly 

 developed preopercular spine, the widely separated ventral fins, 

 ifec.) that it has been proposed, and I think with justice, to differ- 

 entiate them as an equivalent group under the name Calliony- 

 inoidei, a group which perhaps has more affinity to the Platy- 

 cephaloidei than is generally admitted. The Cepolidce have, 

 however, been more usually associated with the blennioid than 

 with" the gobioid types, but they differ intrinsically from the 



