AMIIDA. — XXIII. ve 
33. AMIA Linneus. (Amiatus Rafinesque.) (dia, ancient 
name of some fish.) 
47. A. calva L. Bow-rry. Mup-risg. DoG-risu. “JoHN 
A. GrinpD_e.” Blackish olive, sides with greenish reticulations, 
lower side of head with dark spots; ¢ with a black ocellus edged 
with orange at base of C. above. Head 33; depth 4. D. 48. 
A.11. Lat.1.67. @ 18 inches; 9 24. Swamps and lakes, Vt. 
to Dakota, Fla., and Texas; abundant in lowlands. A fish of 
great interest to zodlogists, from its relation to earlier types. 
(Lat., bald.) 
Series TELEOSTEI. 
We now take up the series of Jeleostei proper, or true Bony- 
fishes, a group comprising the great majority of existing fishes. 
It is apparently descended from the Ganoid type, the Nemato- 
gnathi being apparently allies or descendants of the Glaniostomi, 
and the Jsospondyli of the Halecomorphi. As a whole, the Tele- 
ostei differ from the Ganoids in the more perfectly ossified skeleton, 
the less heterocercal tail, the degradation of the air-bladder and 
the arterial bulb, and in the simplicity of the optic chiasma. 
The Teleostei are divisible into two great groups, with rather 
ill-defined boundaries, — the Physostomi, or soft-rayed fishes, and 
the Physoclysti, or spiny-rayed. ‘The members of the former 
group have throughout life a slender duct, by which the air-bladder 
is joined to the alimentary canal. In most cases the fin-rays are 
soft, the ventrals abdominal, the pectorals placed low, and the 
scales cycloid. Although the typical Physostomi differ in many 
ways from the more specialized Physoclysti, yet as we approach 
the junction of the two groups the subordinate differences disap- 
pear, leaving finally the presence of the air-duct in Physostomi as 
the only differential character. In view of this close relation of 
the two groups, several writers, following Professor Gill, have re- 
moved as separate orders various aberrant forms, leaving the bulk 
of both groups in one large order, Teleocephali, with numerous 
suborders. We prefer to regard most of these suborders as dis- 
tinct orders rather than to treat the heterogeneous group of 
Teleocephali as an “order.” (réAeos, perfect ; daréov, bone.) 
OrvpER XI. NEMATOGNATHI. 
This order contains several families, which agree in having the 
subopercle wanting, the anterior vertebrze coalesced, and the max- 
illary reduced to the bony core of a long barbel. None of the 
order have scales. (vjua, thread; yva6os, jaw.) 
