302 THE FAMILY AMPHIPNOID.E GILL. 



comparatively long and slender; pharyngobranchials of third and fourth 

 arches developed as dentigeroiis epipharyngeaJs, which are closely 

 apposed to each other and of nearly equal size; hypopharyngeals falci- 

 form and beset with pauciserial teeth ; branchial filnnents reduced and 

 mostly confined to the second branchial arch. 



Respiration supplemented by a pair of bladder-like sacks developed 

 behind the head (one on each side of the nape), having " thin, semi- 

 transparent, membranous parietes" and receiving a portion of the 

 " blood contained in the branchial artery" for aerification.* 



The family has but one genus, viz : 

 Amphipnous if«77e>' Abhandl. Akad. Wissensch. Berlin, 1839, p. 246,1 1841= Op WcA- 

 thys Swainson, Nat. Hist. Fishes, etc., v. 2, pp. 196, 3.36, 1839 (not of Ahl, 

 17 89) = Pneumabra»chus McClelland, Calcutta Journ. Nat. Hist., v. 5, p. 192? 

 1844. • 



Type A. cuchia, ex Buch. 



The skeletons w.hich have served for the ])resent description have 

 been extracted from dried specimens of the A. cuchia, for which I am 

 indebted to W. L. Sclater, esq., the assistant director of the Indian 

 Museum of Calcutta. 



The postcephalic bladders and branchial apparatus have been de- 

 scribed and illustrated by Hyrtl (Denkschr. k. Akad. Wiss., (Wien.), 

 Math. Nat. CI., v. 14, pp. 39-45, pi. 1858. 



* Das Herz des AmpMpnous is keiu Venenherz, wie das aller iibrigen Fisclie, son- 

 dern ein Cor arterioso-venosum, wie jenes der Amphibien. — Hyrtl, o. c, p. 42. 



+ The name Jmjj/ji7>woM8 occurs (op. cit.) on p. 246 (not 214), but the remarks on 

 the cuchia commence on p. 244. 



