838 Bulletin ^7, United States National Aluseum. 



by thiu skin. Eye lateral, usually la^rge. Mouth wide, oblique. Pre- 

 maxillaries protractile; maxillary rather large, usually with a supple- 

 mental bone. Suborbitals narrow, not sheathing the cheeks. Bands of 

 villiform teeth on jaws', and usually on vomer and palatines ; canines 

 sometimes present. Opercular bones usually spinous. Branchiostegals 



7 or 8. Gill membranes separate, free from the isthmus. Gills 4, a slit 

 behind the fourth. Pseudobrauchiie present. Gill rakers moderate. 

 Cheeks and opercles scaly. No barbels. Dorsal fin continuous, with 2 to 



8 weak spines ; anal with 2 to 4 spines ; ventral fins thoracic, mostly I, 

 7, the number of rays usually greater than I, 5; caudal fin usually forked. 

 Pyloric cix-ca numerous. Genera 6 or 8 ; species about 40. Fishes mostly 

 of the deep seas ; the general color red or black. This group is an ancient 

 type, a great number of extinct species being now known. {Berycida', 

 Giinther, Cat., I, 8-50, 1859, exclusive of certain genera.) 



Anoplooastrin^ : 

 a. Scales small, granular or leaf-like ; teetli unequal; palatines toothless; mouth very wide 

 and oblique. 

 6. Scales leaf-like, pedunculatPd ; teetli villiform, witli two pairs of long fang-like teetli 

 above, and three below. Caulolkpis, 370. 



bb. Scales reduced to minute asperities; teeth villiform, some of those in the lower jaw 

 enlarged. Anoplogaster, 377. 



Melamphain/1! : 

 aa. Scales cycloid ; teeth villiform, none on palatines ; licad large and thick. 



c. Teeth small, cardiform; lower jaw projecting; scales thin ; bodj' short, compressed. 



Poromitra, 378. 

 cc. Teeth in villiform bands ; scales large ; spinous dorsal short. 



d. Anal inserted under last rays of dorsal ; anal with one spine ; dorsal witli three. 



Plectromis, 379. 

 BERYCiNa; : 

 (Kin. Scales ctenoid ; teeth villiform on jaws, palatines, and vomer. 



e. Muzzle short ; chin projecting ; prcopercle spineless ; ojierclee serrated ; anal rays IV, 

 26 to 30 ; ventrals, I, 10. Beryx, 380. 



376. CAULOLEPIS,* Gill. 



Caiilolepis, GiLL, Forest and Stream, xxi, August 30, 1S83, and in Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vi, 

 1884, 258, {lomjidem). 



Contour laterallj'^ oval or broad pyriform, the body compressed, covered 

 with small, jiedunculated, leaf-like scales ; forehead abruptly declivous ; 



*Dr. Gill (in Goode & Bean, Oceanic Ichthyology), adds the following details : 

 Body compressed, pyriform, highest in front, and with the dorsal and inferior outlines con- 

 verging to caudal peduncle, which is moderately long and slender. Scales small and not or 

 scarcely imbricated, upraised by peduncles, and with the surface extended and dentate liehind. 

 Lateral line distinct and developed as a groove running parallel with the back and continuous 

 to the base of the caudal fin. llead higher than long, with the cranial portion very declivous, 

 and with the suspensorial portion obliquely extended downward and backward ; the cranium 

 aliove with three naked membranous areas, an anterior pair pointed forward and diverging to 

 receive the .ascending process of the intermaxillariesand a median hastiforni one behind; also with 

 a naked horseshoe-shaped area around the nape, the naked spaces being separated by the bony 

 bars limiting the largo uiuciferous cavities; suborbital bones enlarged, sculptured, and with 

 small, erect spines; the first w-ith three radiating bars; the second largest, sending four 

 depending processes, three forward or downw.ard, and another articulating with the preoper- 

 culum above its angle; the postoibital expanding distally and articulating with the preoperculuni 

 above; the intersiia<-es covered by a tense skin with the extension of the scales iiiib<Ml(lc(l in it. 

 Preoperculum augnlated downward and backward, f:pinigerous at the angle and with iiu hori- 

 zontal lines ; opercular apparatus much reduced ; tho operculum extended downward, with 



