172 Mr. G. A. Bouleiiger on the Suborders and 



illaries ; jaws toothed ; no suborbitals ; pvfe- 

 operculuni Avell developed ; dorsal and anal very 

 long, formed of soft rays ; ventrals ab.-ent ; vent 

 immediately behind the gill-opening 5. Fierasferidai. 



Suborder VII. Catosteomi. 



Air-bladder, if present, wltliont open duct. Parietal bones, 

 if present^ separated bj the supraoccipital. Pectoral arch 

 suspended from the skull ; no raesocoracoid arch ; coracoid 

 usually very large, or produced posteriorly. Ventral fins, if 

 present, abdominal, or pelvis attached to the coracoid bones. 



The mouth is bordered by the prsemaxiHaries, or by the 

 prgemaxillaries and a small portion of tlie maxilhiries. Air- 

 bladder present, except in the SoU'nostomidje and PegasiJte. 



Following the suggestions of Kner and Steindachner and 

 Cope to their logical conclusion, A. S. Woodward has united 

 the Lophobranchs of Cuvier with the Heniibranchs of Cope, 

 a course which seems fully justified, and has received furtlier 

 support from the recent investigations of Swinnevton *, who 

 has proposed to unite the two groups under the new name of 

 Thoracostei. The structure of the Lojiliobranchs (Soleno- 

 stomidaj and Syngnathidcu) shows that these fishes are only 

 extremely specialized foruis of the group of which the 

 Sticklebacks are the well-known type, and the character of 

 the "tufted" gills alone is surely not of sufficiently great 

 importance to warrant the retention of the Lophobranchii as 

 a division equiv;ilent to the suborders adopted in the ])resent 

 classification. Besides, as recently pointed out by A. iluotf, 

 there is no fundamental difference, only one of degree, 

 between the so-called tufted gill and the normal type; each 

 " tuft " corresponds to one branchial lamella, and at a certain 

 stage of develoj)ment the disj)osition of the branchial lamellaj 

 is the same in a Syngnathus and an ordinary Teleostean. I 

 have recently attempted to show J that the Laniprididie are 

 related to the lleuiibranchii, although sufficiently distinct to 

 warrant the establishment of a division, named Selt'nichthyes§. 



The affinities of the Lamprididse are very doubtful. Lam- 

 pri's has usually been placed with the Acanthopterygians, a 



* Quart. Journ. Micr. Sci. xlv. 1902, p. 503. 



t Ann. Sci. Nat. (8) xiv. 1<J02, p. 197. 



t Ann. & Mat"-, ^'at. Hist. (7) x. 1902, p. 147. 



§ E. 0. Starks', in an important paper (l\ U.S. Nat, Mus. xxv. 1902, 

 p. 019), has shown that the so-called " infraclavicle " of sticklebacks and 

 allies does not exist as a distinct element. The definition of the Cato- 

 steomi as I had originally drawn it up has accordingly been modified. 



