588 CLASSIFICATION OF THE MAIL-CHEEKED FISHES. 



divide the '"Pisces Acanthopteri' of Mtiller" into " an atypical and a 

 typical assemblage. The former should take in the Trigloid, Cottoid, 

 Gobioid, and Lophioid families ; all these are more or less aberrant and . 

 come into proximity to the sub-ganoid types, and even to the true 

 (ianoidei."* 



If the contention of the present author is correct, the views of Pro- 

 fessor Parker are wholly inadmissible. Par from approximating the 

 Ganoids, the mail-cheeked fishes are among the most remote from them, 

 and any characters in which they may be supposed to resemble them, 

 such as the enlargement and development of scales into plates, are sec- 

 ondary and not primitive features. Still more specialized and remote 

 from the Ganoids are the "Gobioid and Lophioid families." The evi- 

 dence in favor of this contention appears to be overwhelming. Pro- 

 fessor Parker considers that the u Coitus bubalis? his "first instance, 

 is the best connecting link between the Ganoid and sub-ganoid types 

 already described and the true typical Teleostei, the Percoids and 

 their allies; moreover, another Cottoid — the Pogge (Agonus cataphrac- 

 tus) — re-assumes the ganoid coveriug."t It appears to me conclusive 

 that the Scorpseuoids are the most generalized and least divergent of 

 the series and derived from (and not ancestral or subancestral to) the 

 perciform fishes, while it is equally indisputable that the Cottoids are 

 divergent in a still greater degree in the road of specialization foreshad- 

 owed in the Scorpnenoids; and to even still greater a degree are the 

 Agonoids, the Trigloids, and the Dactylopteroids divergent. 



SYSTEMATIC SUMMARY. 



As it has been shown in the preceding pages that the characters 

 made use of by previous ichthyologists, based as well on external feat- 

 ures as ou anatomical peculiarities, are not co-ordinated in the manner 

 claimed, it became necessary to examine in detail the various types 

 that have been referred to the mail-cheeked fishes. This has been 

 done by means of the skeletons and alcoholic collections in the National 

 Museum. I have thus been enabled to study the skeletons of repre- 

 sentatives of all the families that have been admitted except two, the 

 Caracanthidce and the Rhamphoeotlidw. The former family is not rep- 

 resented in the National Museum even by an alcoholic specimen, but of 

 the latter there is a moderately well preserved example which permits 

 an interpretation, at least, of skeletal characters. It is quite probable 

 that the Caracanthidce represent a peculiar superfamily, while the 

 Rhamphocottida\ if 1 interpret correctly their characters, also represent 

 a superfamily. The following synopsis exhibits the chief, or at least the 

 most obvious, characteristics of the several superfaunlies. It will be 



* Parker (W. K.). A Monograph on the Structure ami Development of the Shoul- 

 der-girdle and Sternum in the Vertebrata. London, Ido'tJ. (p. 42.) 

 t Parker, op. cit., p. 43. 



