2 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol. 124 



The present paper is addressed to the problem of how best to arrange 

 and classify the fishes that make up the order Perciformes. Attention 

 has been focused on the subordinal and superfamilial levels. Families 

 have been considered only insofar as they have been misplaced or 

 indicate what fishes are included in a suborder or superfamily. Such 

 formal family classifications as have been included are not original, 

 and the sources from which they have been adopted are stated. 



It has, of course, been possible to examine only a small proportion 

 of the thousands of species included in the Perciformes. Selection of 

 material for investigation has been made on two bases. The greatest 

 amount of time has been spent on the most controversial groups, 

 notably the Blennioidei. Within a group the morphologically general- 

 ized members have been investigated. 



Names used throughout this paper are conventional. In no instance 

 has an effort been made to solve nomenclatorial problems with regard 

 either to bone or fish names. 



Acknowledgments. — Almost all of the work on which this paper is 

 based has been done during tenure of a Smithsonian Research Associate- 

 ship. For space and facilities in the Fish Division of the U.S. National 

 Museum during the year 1965-1966, I am greatly obligated to the 

 staff of that Division, especially to its Curator, Dr. E. A. Lachner. 

 The majority of the material investigated is in the U.S. National 

 Museum. I would like also to thank Drs. D. M. Cohen and D. W. 

 Strasburg of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Drs. J. Bohlke 

 and J. C. Tyler of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 

 (ANSP) for the loan of specimens. Though I have benefited greatly 

 from discussion with all of the ichthyologists in the U.S. National 

 Museum, I would like specifically to acknowledge the help of Dr. D. 

 M. Cohen with the ophidioids, of Drs. B. B. Collette and R. H. Gibbs 

 with the scombroids, and of Dr. V. M. Springer with the blennioids, 

 all of whom have been kind enough to read one draft or another of the 

 section on the groups mentioned. 



The original manuscript of this paper, submitted in December 1966, 

 was revised and brought up to date in August 1967. Both drafts have 

 been typed by my wife, whose assistance gratefully is acknowledged. 



Material Examined 



Unless otherwise noted, all material investigated forms part of the 

 U.S. National Museum fish collections. Specimens that were examined 

 merely for superficial characters will not be listed. Other material falls 

 into four categories: a very few of the specimens were cleared and 

 stained by the trypsin method developed at the USNM by Dr. W. R. 

 Taylor; a number of forms were X-rayed through the courtesy of the 

 USNM Fish Division; some of the skeletons in the skeleton collection 



