70 CARL L. HUBBS 



to a lesser degree and without constancy, in the lower teleosts. 

 The upper four saber-shaped branchiostegals are always attached 

 to the outer surface of both epihyal and ceratohyal, at and above 

 the angle of the arch, and are folded together like a fan above 

 and behind the opercular margins (except in those cases in which 

 the branchiostegal membranes are drawn taut by their broad 

 union ventrally). Below (and before) the angle of the arch, to 

 its edge or inner surface, usually two or three shorter and slenderer 

 rays are attached; these may be reduced to one, or, very rarely, 

 to none, and are increased, in certain berycoids and blennioids to 

 four, but never to a higher number. Thus, the branchiostegals 

 of the Acanthopteri and related groups are usually four plus two 

 or four plus three in number, rarely four plus one or four plus 

 four, and very rarely four plus nought or even three plus nought.* 

 In formulating the generalizations outlined in the preceding 

 paragraph, one to many species of each of the families of higher 

 teleosts, named in the following list, were examined. The 

 variations in the characters of the branchiostegals rays were found 

 to be so slight that for present purposes detailed descriptions are 

 unnecessary. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 



BouLENGER, G. A. 1909 Catalogue of the fresh-water fishes of Africa in the 



British Museum. London. 

 JuNGERSEN, H. F. E. 1909 On the osteology of the Lophobranchii. Report 



Brit. Assoc. Adv. Sci. 

 Meek, Alexander 1890 On the structure of Trachypterus arcticus. Studies 



Dundee College Museum, vol. 1. 

 Parker, T. J. 1886 Studies in New Zealand ichthyology. I. On the skeleton 



of Regalecus argenteus. Trans. Zool. Socy. London, vol. 12, figs. 6 



and 15. 

 RiDEWooD, W. G. 1904 On the cranial osteology of the fishes of the families 



Mormyridae, Notopteridae, and Hyodontidae. Jour. Linn. Socy. 



London (Zool.), vol. 29. 

 Starks, E. C. 1908 The characters of Atelaxia, a new suborder of fishes. Bull. 



Mus. Comp. Zool., vol. 52. 



* A number recorded only for certain cirrhitiform percoids, so far as the writer 

 has determined. 



