ZOOLOGY. C29 



aiiAlfs of the mouth ; then the chin aiul the luisiil barbels iiiiike their 

 appeaiance. AH but the nasal barbels, upon examinatiou with the 

 niicrotouie, are found to contain a cartilajiinons siii)])ortinji- axis. 



The yelk is very coarsely granular and is coini)osed of spheroidal 

 bodies which are more or less misshapen by mutual i)ressure. At the 

 end of about two weeks the yelk bag becomes outwardly imperceptible. 

 The peculiarly wide or extendetl cerebellum of these fishes begins to be 

 apparent at a very early stage in the embryo. The segmentation is 

 meroblastic, a very sharply defined germinal disk being ibrined. The 

 way in which the embryos swing their tails back and i'orth within the 

 eg;g on the second and third days reminds one forcibly of this habit in 

 an angry cat, and is worthy of note on account of the name of this 

 group, viz, the Catlishes. 



The young, after hatching, cluster together and seem to follow the 

 male parent. When feeding upon chopped meat the young were fre- 

 quently taken into the month of the male parent, who would, however, 

 always reject his progeny alive and unharmed from his mouth before 

 swallowing, showing that he was able to discriminate between his young 

 and his food. {Bull U. S. Fish Com., m, pp. 225-230.) 



The Sacco2)haryngidce relatives of the Eiirypharyngidce. — In the search 

 for relations of the strange Eurypharyngidse, Messrs. Gill and Ryder 

 became convinced that the genus ISaccopharynx, proposed in 1824 by 

 Mitchiir, and the Ophiognathns, named three years later by Harwood 

 (liS27), were closely related, and consequently the family embracing the 

 two has been approximated to the Eurypharyngidre as a related type. 

 Some modifications were also found to be necessary in the diagnosis of 

 the ordinal group. The Lyomeri are now distinguishable as Teleost 

 fishes with five branchial arches, none of which are njodified as branchi- 

 ostegal or pharyngeal, far behind the skull 5 an imperfectly ossified 

 cranium, deficient especially in nasal and vomerine elements, articulat- 

 ing with the first vertebra by a basiocipital condyle alone; with only 

 two cephalic arches, both freely movable, (1) an anterior dentigerous 

 one (the sni>ramaxillary) and (2) the suspensarial, consisting of only 

 hyoiuandibular and quadrate bones; without opereular elements; with- 

 out palatitu^ or pterygoid bones; with the scapular arch imperfect, lim- 

 ited to a simple cartilaginous i)iece, remote from the skull ; with the rays 

 of the pectorals sessile directly upon them, and with separately ossified 

 but imperfect vertebrae. 



A peculiar type of Fishes. — Over 100 years ago (in 1781) a very curious 

 fish was described by the German naturalist, Hermann, under the name 

 Sternoptyx, but the old naturalist was deceived by appearances and 

 quite misunderstood the structure and relation of the species. Al- 

 though its anatomy has been worked at, its peculiarities have ucft been 

 appreciated. Attracted by certain appearances. Professor Gill ex- 

 amined the skeleton and found that it exhibited difi'ereuces of such a 



