The Spine-finned Teleostei 389 



the S. Atlantis shores they passed to Africa, thence to the 

 coasts of Ceylon and the E. Indian Archipelago, while out- 

 liers passed into the Chinese sea and on to N. Australia. 

 Favored by the extensive algoid and coralloid banks, reefs, 

 and shoals of the Indian and Australian shores, as well as 

 by the abundant molluscan and crustacean life, rapid and 

 diverging variation was doubtless effected in even the few 

 that reached these areas. Further and very importantly 

 it should be emphasized that their defensive spines, pro- 

 tective colorings, and resort to rocky coves or fissures 

 favored their life-continuance and wide distribution. It 

 is worth observing also that — like many plant-groups — 

 they have evolved as a tropical family with only a few sub- 

 tropical or warm-temperate outliers. 



The Labridae as a family is richer in genera and species 

 than the last, for it comprises close on 40 genera and up- 

 wards of 400 species. The structure of these proclaims 

 a progressive but decided advance on, and from, members 

 of the last family. If the fundamental geographical con- 

 ceptions then, that were set forth above for the Pomacen- 

 tridae, are further illustrated and emphasized here, this will 

 yield added proof of the probable correctness of these 

 conceptions. But in this instance also, space will only per- 

 mit us to discuss shortly a few of the leading genera, though 

 these can well be accepted as exemplifying the whole. 



Platyglossiis is the richest genus with 58 species. Of 

 these the coasts of Cuba harbor 4, Martinique 3, the Carib- 

 bean seas 3, the Caribbean-Bahia region 2, the tropical 

 Atlantis coasts 2, the Red Sea, Mauritius, Mozambique, 

 Ceylon, and India carry 6, the E. Indian Archipelago 18, 

 Singapore, Java and Celebes include 4, The Red Sea and 

 Ceylon have 2 in common, the East Indies and Chinese 

 sea have 4. One very curiously is common to the Celebes 

 and Sandwich Islands, i to Fiji and Amboyna, while the 

 remainder are peculiar to local E. Indian Islands. 



Cossyphus includes about 20 species, one of which ex- 

 tends from Jamaica to Brazil, and thence across to St. 

 Helena; 2 inhabit the coasts of Lower California, i the 

 Madeira, Canary and Cape Verde Islands, 6 surround 

 Mauritius, i is continuous from Mauritius and Madagascar 



