682 TELEOSTEI CHAP. 
and their long posteriorly attenuate body ending in a large 
forked caudal fin, give them a peculiar appearance. 
Fam. 9. Bramidae.—Praemaxillaries small, not or but feebly 
protractile ; maxillaries large, scaly. Vertebrae 42 to 47, the 
praecaudal without transverse processes, but mostly with hemal 
arches to which the ribs are attached, the epipleurals being 
inserted on the centra. Body deep; scales moderate or large, 
strongly imbricate, with processes which, in certain parts at least, 
serve to connect the rows of scales. Dorsal and anal elongate, 
some or all of the rays‘simple, but not forming true spines. 
Pectoral inserted rather low down the side, freely movable 
upwards and downwards. Pseudobranchiae present. 
Pelagic fishes, often descending to great depths. About 12 
species are known,’ referable to 6 genera: Brama, Taractes, 
Pterycombus, Pteraclis, Bentenia, and Steinegeria. Taractes, often 
confounded with Brama, differs from it not only in the larger, 
keeled scales, but also in the protractile mouth and in the much 
greater development of most of the ribs, which form curved 
lamellae of great width.? Pteraclis is very remarkable for the 
enormous, sail-like dorsal and anal fins. 
Division IIJ.—ZEORHOMBI. 
Aberrant, strongly compressed Perciformes, with very short 
praecaudal region, modified much as in the Flat-Fishes, eulminat- 
ing in asymmetrical forms, and characterised by the combination 
of an increased number (7 to 9) of ventral rays, with absence 
of hypural spine (by which the Berycidae are excluded), or by 
asymmetry of the skull in the forms in which the spine of the 
ventral fin has been lost. 
Among the symmetrical forms, the existing Zeidae agree with 
the Berycidae in having more than five soft rays to the ventral 
fins, and are probably derived, together with the Eocene 
Amphistiidae, from some common ancestral group still to be 
discovered in Cretaceous beds. These Zeidae have much in 
common with the Pleuronectidae,? and might be regarded as 
1 Monographs by Lunel, J/ém. Soc. Phys. Genéve, xviii. 1865, p. 165, and by 
Liitken, Spolia Atlantica, i. 1880, p. 491. , 
2 Troschel, Sitzb. Ver. Preuss. Rheinl. xx. 1863, p. 51 (Brama raii and B, 
longipinnis). ‘ 
3 Cf. Thilo, Zool. Anz. 1902, p. 305. 
