Classification of the Bhnnioid Fishes. 



275 



hypercoracoid and three on the hjpocoracoid. If, as 



probable, the fin-rays correspond 

 veitebrae number about 235. 



to the myotomes, the 



Family 9. Zoarcidae. 



There are no spinous fin-rays, except sometimes a h\y 

 posterior rays o£ the dorsal, the ventral fins are confluent and 

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

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

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

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

 Melanostigma they are small foian)ina, in Lycodapus and 

 Bothrocara they extend forward to below the eye; other 

 genera are intermediate. 



I have examined tiie skeleton in Zoarces and Ly codes. 

 The skull is flattish above, with the frontals narrowed 

 between and expanded behind the orbits; the parietals are 



Fi-. 4. 



eoc 

 opo:: 



epp soc' 

 p plo spo -p p^O'^^^i^ 



eoc 



'I;OC 



P^<^ asp p^ \r' 



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



«, nasal ; eth, mesethmoid ; leth, lateral ethmoid ; v, vomer ; psjj, 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 



