16 THE CYPRINODONTS. 



de cette famille tous les genres qui, dans le regne animal de Cuvier, suivent 

 les Loches proprement dites, savoir les AnaUeps, les P(jecilia, les Lehias, les 

 Fwididus, les MoUnesia et les Cyprimdon, pour en faire une petite famille a 

 part, sous le nom de Ci/prinodontcs.'" To this family he refers again in 1839, 

 in 1844, and in 1854. It was adopted by Muller, 1843 and 1846, Miiller and 

 Troschel, 1848, Gill, 1856, Poey, 1858, Kner and Steindachner, 1865, Fitz- 

 inger, 1873, and others, under the name first given, and under the form 

 Cyprinodontidae, its adoption has been pretty near general. Valenciennes, 

 1846, retained Cuvier's name Cyprino'ides, without separating the families 

 and was imitated by Poey, 1855, with the orthography Cyprinoidei and 

 Cyprinoidea. Owen, 1846, renders the name Cyprinodontidae, mentioning 

 " Umber " as the type, and this form of the title has been somewhat gen- 

 erally accepted, but with the exclusion of the Umbridte. Swainson, 1839, 

 divided the Cyprinidae and put his CyprinsB in the Salmonidce as a sub- 

 family, while he raised the remainder to family rank as the Cobitida? with 

 three sub-families, Cobitinoe, Anablepidas, and PoeciliuEB. McClelland, 1839, 

 has in his family Cyprinidte, what he calls "a small group" containing P^e- 

 cilia, Lebias, Aplocheilus, Fundulus, Molinesia, and Cyprinodon. MacLea}^, 

 1842, placed the Poeciliante, Cobitinoe, and PlatycarinaB in his Apalopterinte, 

 a division of the Cyprinida). Bleeker, 1859, divides his Cyprinodontoidei 

 into Cyprinodontini, Aplocheilini, Orestiasini, and Anablepini. In 1863, the 

 family became Cyprinodonto'ides, the sub-families Ci/prinodoutiformes, with 

 stirps Tellianini, Cyprinodontini, and Belonesocini, and Aplocheiliformcs, with 

 stirps Orestiasiformes and Anablepiformes. Gill, 1856, adopted the Cyprino- 

 dontes ; in 1861, his family became the Cyprinodontoidas, with sub-families 

 Cyprinodontinoe and Hydrargyrinas ; in 1865 he took up Poeciliidas, as from 

 Bonaparte ; in 1872 he grouped together the Esocidae, Umbridoe, and Cypri- 

 nodontidae under the name Cyprinodontoidea ; and in 1894, ignoring the 

 fact that it was preoccupied in insects, he again prefers Poeciliida^. This 

 last, or his Cyprinodontidae of 1872, is the equivalent of the Cyprinodontidae 

 of Glinther and later authors. GUnther, 1866, subdivides the Cyprinodon- 

 tidtB into Cyjvinodontidce carnivorce, containing the Cj'prinodontina, the Fun- 

 dulina, Jenynsiina, and the Anablepina, and the Cyprinodontidce Umnoj)hagce, 

 including such genera as are here placed in the Poeciliinae. 



In the present writing the characters and contents of the family and of 

 the genera vary somewhat from those of other authors, as is indicated in the 

 synopsis below. Though the structure of the eye, of the anal fin and of 



