388 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY 



first ray of the dorsal fin and that in all their essential features the lophiids and their allies 

 agree with the acanthopterygian fishes; that the "callionymes" show a reduction of the 

 branchial orifice; that some of the blennies have the first dorsal on the head; that one of the 

 gobies (the "Cottus macrocephalus" of Pallas) has the head as much depressed as that of 

 Lophius piscatorius; that Periophthalmus has similarly elongate pectorals, which are also 

 used for running about on the mud flats " comtne les chironectes." In Cuvier's figure of 

 " Chironectes {Branchionichthys) unipennis" (PI. XVIII, Fig. 3) the illicium differs but little 

 from the two long rays behind it, while all three cephalic rays are connected by a web of 

 skin with the long-based dorsal fin. This is the most primitive condition among the typical 

 pediculates. In " Chironectes" (Branchionichthys) punctatus (PI. XVIII, Fig. 5) the 

 skeleton is relatively very primitive in appearance save that the stout pectoral pterygials 

 are reduced to two and the pectoral fin is truly pediculate. This enables it to be turned 

 below, behind or above the swollen throat and abdomen. 



Here we have touched upon what is perhaps the primary adaptation of the pediculates, 

 namely, the great enlargement of the throat and abdomen, which apparently permits them 

 to devour either relatively large prey or a great quantity of small prey at one time. The 

 "pediculate" portion of the pectoral is simply the remnant of a once very large and con- 

 tinuous pectoral fin which was spread around the side of the enlarged throat as it is in the 

 batrachoids. The branchiostegal rays have shared in the enlargement of the lower part 

 of the opercular flap; in the antennariids this flap finally overlapped the shoulder-girdle and 

 by adhering to the skin on its surface has closed off all the upper part of the normal post- 

 opercular slit. In this way the exhalent respiratory current, instead of escaping in front 

 of the pectoral girdle in the ordinary way, is led around through a special tunnel in the skin 

 that opens above and behind the pectoral fin. According to Cuvier, Renard and Valentyn 

 reported that the "chironectes" (antennariids) can virtually go on all fours and that they 

 thus pursue their prey among the seaweed and on the mud. The small size of their bran- 

 chial opening, he thinks, makes it very probable that they can live for some time in the air; 

 he even approves the epithet of "amphibian" that Commerson had applied to the chironec- 

 tes. He also notes that Margrave, Commerson and others testify that the chironectes have 

 the power of inflating the belly like a balloon, and that anatomical inquiry shows that they 

 could do this only by swallowing air and filling their great stomachs with it, as do the tetro- 

 dons. Aquarium specimens can also squirt water forcefully from their branchial orifice. 



It seems possible that this undoubted power of inflation, which is conditioned by the 

 closure of the normal branchial slit as well as by the enlargement of the branchiostegal flap, 

 may partly compensate for the small size of the gills and their reduction in number to two 

 half gills and two entire gills. It seems also that Pterophryne and other antennariids that 

 are commonly found in sargassum weed hundreds of miles out at sea have simply stayed in 

 the seaweed or been hatched in it after it has drifted far away from the shore where it 

 originated. While on the New York Zoological Society expedition to the Sargasso Sea, we 

 had the opportunity of studying the movements of these little fishes in our aquaria. In the 

 seaweed the Pterophryne uses its arm-like, widely-webbed, almost hand-like pectorals and 

 its foot-like pelvics in climbing about on the fronds of the sargassum weed, showing an 

 amazing range of movements of these appendages. They often reach'uoward with one 

 pectoral "flipper" and downward with the opposite one, at the same time reaching forward 

 with the pelvic flippers. Even the dorsal and anal fin tend to press against or cling to the 



