1884.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 179 



The family is perhaps composite and lias been constituted or 

 retained for three genera ( Congrogadus = Machserium, Halio- 

 phis, and Scytalina) which may prove to have little or no affinity 

 to each other. It is entirely provisional and must remain of very 

 uncertain value till the forms can be anatomically investigated. 

 It is only by an assumption, perhaps, if not probably illegitimate, 

 that Haliophis has been referred to the group. " Riippell says 

 'Apertura branehialis parva,' " but Dr. GUnther, "by a comparison 

 of the figure " was " induced to suppose that, as in Congrogadus, 

 the gill-opening is of moderate width, the gill-membranes being 

 united below the throat, and not attached to the isthmus."^ 

 I should not have been induced, b^^ the figure to make any such 

 assumption, for the likeness to Congrogadus is very slight. The 

 single specimen of Scytalina in the National Museum cannot be 

 dissected. 



SuPERPAMii.Y LYCODOIDEA. 

 Synonymy. 



= Lycodoidea, Gill, Cat. Fishes E. Coast N. Am,, p. 7, 1873. (Named 

 only.) 



Jugulares with the orbito-rostral portion of the cranium con- 

 tracted and shorter than the posterior, the cranial cavity open in 

 front, but bounded laterally by expansions of the annectant 

 parasphenoid and frontals, with the supraoccipital declivous and 

 tectiform behind, the occipitals above inclined forward along the 

 sides of the supraoccipital, and the exoccipital condyles distant, 

 with the hypercoracoid foraminate about its centre and the hypo- 

 coracoid with an inferior process convergent to the proscapula.^ 



These characters are formulated from a skeleton of Zoarces 

 anguillaris in the possession of the writer. 



LYCODID^. 



Family Synonyms. 



X ZoarcMdce, Swainson, Nat. Hist, and Class. Fishes, etc., v. 3, pp. 184, 



283, 1839. 

 > Lycodidw, Giintlier, Cat. Fishes Biit. Mus., v. 4, p. 319, 1862. 

 = Lycodoidce, Gill, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci Phila., v. 15, p. 2.15, 1863 (De- 

 fined) ; V. 16, p. 203, 1864. (Cranial characters indicated.) 



1 Giinther, Cat. Fishes in Brit. Mus., v. 4, p. 389. 



"^ The nostrils are single on each side as in many Blennioidea. 



