166 OSTEOLOGY OF MUR^NID^— GILL. 



=Gynmothoracidi, Poey, Anal. Soc. Esp. Hist. Nat., t. 4 (Euum. Pise. Cub., p. 10), 1875. 

 ^Mnrseiiidse, Gunther, lut. to Study of Fishes, p. 669, 1880. 

 <^MursBnidi;e, Moreau, Hist. Nat. Poissons France, t. 3, p. 574, 1881. 

 =Mur{enidiB, Jordan ^ Giliert, Syn. Fishes N. Am., p. 355, 1882. 

 =Mura;nida}, Gill, Standard Nat. Hist., v. 3, p. 107, 1885. 



DIAGNOSIS. 



Coloceplialoiis Apodals with conic head, feebly developed opercular 

 apparatus, long and wide ethmoid, posterior maxillmes, pauciserial 

 teeth, roundish lateral branchial apertures, diversiform vertical fins, 

 pectoral fins (typically) suppressed, scaleless skin, restricted inter- 

 branchial slits, and very imperfect brnnchial skeleton, with the fourth 

 branchial arch modified, strengthened, and supporting pharyngeal jaws.* 



Description. 



Body typically anguilliform, subcyiindrical forwards, compressed 

 back\\ards, with the ciuidal portion gradually attenuated backwards, 

 and with the anus near or in advance of the middle of the length. 



Scales absent. 



Lateral line generally absent. 



Head moderate or small, conic, with all the bones invested in the mus- 

 cles or skin. 



Eyes typically well advanced within the anterior half of the head, 

 directed sideways, of moderate or small size and not covered by the skin. 



Nostiils diversiform ; posterior in front of or partly above the eyes, 

 anterior near the margin of the snout and generally tubular. 



Mouth with the cleft more or less extending beyond the eyes. 



Jaws well developed ; maxillines far from snout, with the anterior end 

 enlarged and articulating with the oblique truncated lateral extensions 

 of the vomer, and with the clamping processes little developed and not 

 directly appressed to the sides of the vomer, with slight ledge-like exten- 

 sions behind, but attenuated backwards; mandible moderately stout, but 

 with the dentary elongated, with the coronoid process well developed 

 some distance from its posterior end, the articular little produced ex- 

 ternally beyond the condyle (but reaching well forwivrds internally) and 

 not, or little, extending beyond the condyle backwards. 



Teeth diversiform, generally acute and some enlarged, sometimes 

 blunt, generally extending on the shaft of the vomer as on the jaws. 



Lips obsolete. 



Tongue suppressed. 



Periorbital bones moderately developed. 



Opercular apparatus reduced ; operculum pedunculated and decurved, 

 inserted low down in the hyomandibular; suboperculum interposed be- 



" If a still shorter diagnosis be desired, the family be contrasted with all others, so 

 far as known, as tongueless engijscMstous Apodals, or, again, as' Apodals with the fourth 

 Iranchial arch limited totheoeratohranchialsandepibraiichiala strengthened and closely ap- 

 plied to elongated pharyngeal hones. 



