330 MEMOIRS OF THE CARNEGIE MUSEUM. 



Order Percomorphi. 



Phj^soclistic Teleosts with symmetrical cranium; pelvic bones directly attached 

 to the cleithra; each pelvic fin composed of one spinous and five soft rays or still 

 further reduced; no orbitosphenoid, and no bony stay for the pre-operculum. 



Under this order are comprised in the more recent classifications of Regan the 



following six suborders: Percoidei, Scombrodei, Kurtodei, Gobioidei, Blennioidei, 



and Scorpsenoidei. 



Suborder Percoidei. 



Family Carangid^. 

 Genus Amphistium Agassiz. 

 Trunk much deepened, and head short and deep, with rather large supra- 

 occipital crest. Eye large; cleft of mouth of moderate size and directed upward; 

 teeth minute or absent. Paired fins small, the pelvic pair inserted in advance of 

 pectorals; dorsal fin not much elevated, extending along the greater part of the 

 back, with three or four feeble anterior spines; anal fin almost or quite as much 

 extended as the dorsal, with three or four feeble anterior spines; caudal fin rounded. 

 Scales very small, none enlarged or thickened. 



5. Amphistium paradoxum Agassiz. 

 1796. Pleuronedes platessa G. S. Volta, Ittiolit. Veronese, p. 179, PI. XLIV, fig. 1 



(errore) . 

 1818. Pleuronedes platessa H. D. de Blainville, Nouv. Diet. d'Hist. Nat., Vol. 



XXVII, p. 357 (errore). 

 1835. Amphistium paradoxum L. Agassiz, Neues Jahrb., p. 294 (name only). 

 1834-44. Amphistium paradoxum L. Agassiz, Poiss. Foss., Vol. V, Pt. l,p. 44, PI. 



XIII. 

 1905. Amphistium paradoxum C. R. Eastman, Mem. Soc. Geol. France, No. 34, 

 p. 24. 

 Type.^Nearly complete fish; Museum of Natural History, Paris. 

 The genotype, attaining a length of about 20 cm. Length of head with 

 opercular apparatus somewhat exceeding half the maximum depth of the trunk, 

 which is contained twice or slightly less in the total length of the base of the caudal 

 fin. Vertebral column composed of nine abdominal and fifteen caudal vertebrae, 

 all abbreviate and massive. Dorsal and anal fins gently rounded and equally 

 elevated, each with from twenty-one to twenty-three stout, articulated, and 

 divided rays. 



This rare and interesting species is considered by Boulenger " to realize in 



