Classification of the Blennioid Fishes. 



275 



as IS 



liypercoracoid and three on the liypocoracoid. If, 

 probable, the fin-rays correspond to the myotomes, the 

 vertebrae number about 235. 



Family 9. Zoarcidse. 



There are no spinous fin-rays, except sometimes a few 

 posterior rays of the dorsal, the ventral fins are confident and 

 the pelvic fins, when present, are small, jugular. The mouth 

 is non-protractile, the suborbitals are delicate, attached as in 

 the Clinidae, and the gill-membranes are joined to the isthmus. 

 The width of the gill-openino-s is extraordinarily variable; in 

 ]\lelanodigma they are small foianiina, in Lycodapus and 

 Bothrocara they extend forward to below the eye; other 

 genera are intermediate. 



I have exan)ined the skeleton in Zoarces and Ly codes. 

 The skull is flatfish above, with the fronfals narrowed 

 between and expanded behind the orbits; the parietals are 



Fi-. 4. 





p pto spo -p ptO'^ 

 • • ' ' opo- 



prd^^ asp 'p^ V' 



Skull of Zoarces vivlparus from above, from the side, and from behind. 



n, nasal ; eth, mesethmoid ; leth, lateral ethmoid ; v, vomer ; psp, para- 

 sphenoid ; asp, alisphenoid ; /, frontal ; p, parietal ; soc, supra- 

 occipital ; eoc, exoccipital ; hoc, basioccipital ; ^j?'o, prootic ; spo^ 

 sphenotic ; pto, pterotic ; epo, epiotic ; opo, opisthotic. 



separated by the supiaoccipital, which has a feeble crest or 

 none ; the exoccipital condyles are widely separated and the 

 wing of the parasphenoid meets a descending process of the 

 frontal ; the opisthotic is small, the pterotic elongate, and 

 the sphenotic not very prominent. These features are shown 

 in the figures of the skull of Zoarces viviparus (fig. 4), from 



