coTni.MdKriis. 



147 



means confined to these fishes. It also occurs l>o1h in 

 a North Pacific finnily, flcfcrolrpiihc {(Jlnruhf), wliich 

 is reniarkaldc in se\"eral otiier respects, and which is 

 now regarded by Gunther" as belonging to the lUcn- 

 tiomorphi. and in tlie Gobioniorph I'aniilv Ci/cloj)- 



teridcr. In the C'ottomorplii the cheek-armour may be 

 traced thi'ough diffei'ent degrees of development, from 

 its perfect form in the Trigloid type to the far nar- 

 rower osseous bridge across the cheek in the true 

 Cottoids. 



Fam. SCORPyENIDiE/ 



Body perciform {dongated, oral and more or less compressed) or of irrc,giilar shape, without cuirass, covered 

 reguJarly with scales or naked. The spinous-rayed part of the dorscd fin longer {ivith more rays) than the soft- 

 rayed ]}(^i't- Anal fin, as a rule, tvith strong spinous rays In the anterior part. Lower rays of the ijectoral fins, 

 as well as the uppermost 2 or 3, and sometimes all the rays of these fins, simple. Fseudohranchiai, and also, as 



a rule, the air-bladder, well-developed. 



Most of the genera within this family, including 

 manj' singular forms Avith long dermal filaments on 

 the body or with greatly elongated fin-rays, with the 

 head depressed into the form of a saddle or in some 

 other way deformed, and manj' of them with brilliant 

 colours, belong to the sub-tropical and the neighbouring 

 parts of the temperate seas, especially of the Pacific. 

 Out of a score of recognised genera with about 200 

 known species altogether, only two species, each repre- 

 senting a distinct genus, belong to the Scandinavian 

 fauna. These two genera, which in their extreme 

 forms are most unlike each other, are still so nearly 

 connected by intermediate forms that the boundary 

 between them is, we may almost say, arbitrary. The 



changes of growth in tlie better-known of the Scandi- 

 navian species, also show that there exists a natural 

 course of development between these genera, which 

 starts from the true Scorpienoids, with fewer rays in 

 the dorsal and anal fins, more spines on the head and 

 a deeper depression in the forehead, and with the maxil- 

 laries naked or almost so, and passes to the almost 

 Perciform Sebastes, with more fin-rays, smoother head 

 and a closer covei-ing of scales on the maxillaries as 

 well as on the rest of the body. The last character 

 is eventually developed to such a degree that in Se- 

 bastes and Sebastodes, its representative in the Pacific, 

 small ("accessory", Joed., Gilb.) scales press in be- 

 tween the ordinary scales of the body. 



" Systematic spiopsis in Cat. Brit. Miis., Fish.; see also iSiitdy of fishes, p. 491; Handb. Iclith., p. 350. We must remark, however, 

 that these fishes have a large number of rays in the caudal fin and are thus distinguished from the rest of the Anomalopteri . 

 * Gn.L, Canad. Natur., Geol., n. ser., vol. II (1865), p. 247. 



