PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 485 



CENTROPOMUS. 



(Plate YI.) 



< Centropomus, LacepkJe, Hist. Nat. des Poisseus, t. 4, p. 248, 1802. 



< Centropome DiimSril, Zool. Aual., pp. l:« (Ceutropoma), 333, 180(5. 



< Le.s Ceutropomes, Ciivier, liegne Animal, t. 2, p. 294, 1817. 



= Les Ccntropomes, Ckc. 4'- Val, Hist. Nat. des Poissons, t. 2, p. 102, 1828. 

 = Oxylabrax, BJeeker, Arch. N^erlaud. Sc. Ex. et Nat., t. 11, p. 2fi4, 1876. 

 SciiBua sp., Block. 

 Platycepbalns sp., BlocJc-ScJuieider. 

 Perca sp., Lacepede. 

 Sphyraena sp., Lact'jjede. 



Not Ceutropomus, Bleeker (.op. cit., p. 265), 1876. (=Stiz()stetliion Raf. = Lucioperca, 

 Cuv.) 



NOMEIVCIiATUKE OF THE XIHHIID8. 

 BY THEODORE C^ILL. 



The syiiouymy of tlie family XipbiidjiB and its subfamilies has been 

 partially given in Professsor Goode's excellent article on "The Taxon- 

 omic relations and geographical distribution of the members of the 

 Sword-fish tamily" (Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., v. 4, pp. 415-433, 1882), and 

 may be supplemented by the following exhibit. As the characters of 

 the several groups have been already well given by Professor Goode, it 

 is unnecessary to repeat them here. It may be stated, however, that 

 skeletal differences confirm those used for the diagnoses, and the verte- 

 broe especially are even characteristic for the distinction of two families. 



The old family Xiphiidse has been differentiated by Dr. Giinther, as a 

 "division" from the Scombrida^ and the latter contradistinguished in 

 a "division" of Acanthopterygians containing many very heterogene- 

 ous forms. Nevertheless, a careful study of the type renders it evident 

 that the family is closely related to the Scombrida^, and the genus Acan- 

 thocA/Mum, a representative of that famil^^, manifests an incipiency of the 

 characteristics of the Xiphiidiie in the structure of the gills as well as 

 the projection of the snout, the development of the dorsal fin, andj to a 

 less extent, other features. As LUtken and Goode have expressly con- 

 tended, and as I indicated in 1873, by the seqnence in the "Catalogue of 

 the Fishes of the Eastern Coast of the United States" (pp. 9, 3), the 

 Tetrapturinae or Histiophorinre are the most generalized forms of the 

 family and deviate least from the Scombridte while the Xiphiinse are 

 highly specialized, and by the inferior position of the pectorals and in- 

 vestment of the fins mimic the sharks, the largest of which they almost 

 rival in size. 



