A REVIEW OF THE BLENNOID FISHES OF JAPAN. 



By David Stark Jordan hikI John Otterbein Snyder, 



Of (lie Lehiiid SlavfonJ Junior Uiiirersifi/. 



In the present paper is given a descriptive catalogue of the blenny- 

 like fishes {Ble)wu<he and AnarJdehadid») known to inhabit the 

 waters of Japan. It is l)ased on the collections made ])y the writers 

 in the sunniier of 1900 for the museum of Stanford University and on 

 the specimens in the United States National Museum. The accom- 

 panying- drawings are the work of Mrs. Chloe Leslie Starks and Capt. 

 Charles Bradley Hudson. 



Family I. BLENNIID.^. 



BLENNIES. 



Body ohlong or elongate, naked or covered with moderate or small 

 scales, which are ctenoid or cycloid; lateral line variously developed, 

 often wanting, often duplicated; mouth large or small, the teeth vari- 

 ous; gill membranes free from isthmus or more or less attached to it; 

 pseudobranchia^ present; ventrals jugular or subthoracic, of one spine 

 and 1 to 3 soft rays, often wanting; dorsal fin of spines anteriorly, 

 with or without soft rays; anal fin long, similar to soft dorsal; caudal 

 well developed. Vertebrge in moderate or large number, 30 to 80; 

 hypercoracoid (or "scapula") perforate; shoulder girdle normallj^ 

 formed; suborbital without bony stay. 



Fishes of moderate or small size, mostly living near the shore in the 

 tropical and temperate or arctic seas; most of them carnivorous, the 

 Clinina", so far as known, ovoviviparous, the rest mostly oviparous. 

 Dr. Gill divides the group into six families, but the relations of these 

 are verv close, and the distinctive characters of some of the families 

 are subject to exceptions. 



I. Troi)ical blennies with the vertebrae mostly in moderate number, usual] j^ fewer 

 than 45; lateral line usually arched high above the pectoral; dorsal fin with one or 

 more soft rays posteriorly; anal spines little developed; ventrals well developed, 

 usually I, 3; gill membranes broadly united, free from the isthnuis. 

 u. Clininie: Body scaly; lateral line high an*^eriorly; species ovoviviparous as far 

 as known. 



Proceedings U. S. National Museum. Vol. XXV— No. 1293. 



441 



