FISHES — LOPHIDAE — BATRACHID AE . 



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figures ; abdomen and throat white ; some small brown and white spots on the sides, one series 

 faintly indicating a lateral line with a slight downwards curve." 



List of specimens. 



Family LOPHIDAE, Bonap. 



This is the family to which the "Devilfish" of our Atlantic coast belongs. It includes, 

 generally speaking, scaleless fishes, the skin of some of them exhibiting bony tubercles {Malthe) 

 or small spiny grains {Chironectes). In the majority the head is very large and broad whilst 

 the body is reduced and tapering posteriorly. There are others in which the head is of moderate 

 size compared to the body, which, instead of being elongated, is subelliptical in profile, being 

 then, as usual for fishes of such a shape, compressed. The absence of the suborbital bone is 

 not altogether peculiar to the fishes under consideration, since we find it wanting in some 

 batrachoids also. Another trait, a good deal moie conspicuous than the one just alluded to, 

 consists iu the elongation of two carpal bones, which constitute a kind of peduncle, at the 

 extremity of which the pectoral fin is articulated. Hence the name of "Pectorales pediculees," 

 or "Pediculati," by which this family has sometimes been designated. In batrachoids all the 

 carpal bones are considerably developed. The branchial apertures, moreover, open behind the 

 insertion of the pectorals, whilst they are anterior to the latter fins in batrachoids. 



The gills themselves are variable in number, according to the genera ; some having three, 

 others three and a half, and others still, two and a half only. As to the intestine it is simple, 

 the "Devil fish" alone exhibiting a few pyloric appendages. 



Sin. — Lophidae, Bonap. Sagg. Distr. anim. vertebr. 1831, HI.. 



As far as we are acquainted with the marine ichthyic fauna of western North America, we 

 have not heard of any Lophioids as just characterised, and if mention is made of it in this 

 report, it will be easily justified by the fact that the batrachoids which follow having been 

 united with them into the same group, the characters now assigned to the latter could not be 

 fully appreciated unless placed on a parallel with the former. The systematic position of the 

 Lophidae, properly so called, will be at the confine of the Acanthopterian order. 



Family BATRACHID AE, Swains. 



The few genera of which this family is composed are still ranked amongst the Lophidae by 

 several writers and placed at the end of the order of Acanthopterians. The toad fish of our 

 Atlantic coast (Batrachus tau) is one of its representatives. 



About a year ago, while tracing the distinctive traits between the Lophidae and the Batra- 

 chidae, and comparing their natural affinities with those of the other families of the order to 

 which they all belong, we arrived at the conclusion that the Batrachidae ought to follow the 



