CHAPTER VII. 



ORDERS, SUB-ORDERS, AND FAMILIES, 



THE families represented in British waters are herein arranged 

 alphabetically under each order or, in the case of the 

 Actinopterygii, sub-order, which are also alphabetical as being 

 more readily referred to. With each family is given a list, also 

 alphabetical, of its British genera, the numbers indicating where 

 the species are figured on the coloured plates, 



Acanthopterygii- (TELEOSTOMI.) Plates i. to xiv. Nos. i to 113 



ATHERINID^. Body more or less elongate. Two dorsals more or less 

 remote from each other, spines of the first feeble and fewer than rays 

 of the second, anal similar to second dorsal ; ventrals abdominal, of 

 one spine and five rays. Lateral line indistinct. Scales cycloid and 

 of moderate size. Eyes lateral ; mouth moderately wide and not 

 deeply cleft ; teeth minute ; gill opening wide ; four gills ; pseudo- 

 branchiae present ; branchiostegals five or six. Atherina, 83,84. 



BLENNIID.E. Body long and more or less cylindrical. One, two, or three 

 dorsals occupying most of the back, spines varying in number from 

 all to none ; anal long ; ventrals generally jugular and sometimes 

 rudimentary or absent. Scales small and occasionally absent. Gill 

 openings varying; pseudobranchiae present. Anarrhichas, 75; Blen- 

 nius, 76 to 79 ; Carelophus, 80 ; Centronotus, 81 ; Zoarces, 82. 



CALLIONYMID^E. Body, fore part depressed, hinder part cylindrical. Two 

 dorsals, first with three or four flexible spines ; ventrals widely sepa- 

 rated, with five rays. Lateral line single or double. Eye moderate 

 and generally directed upwards. Mouth narrow, upper jaw protractile. 

 Small teeth on jaws, none on vomer. Angle of praeoperculum armed 

 with a spine. Gill opening very narrow ; a slit behind the fourth gill ; 

 pseudobranchiae present ; branchiostegals five or six. Callionymus, 

 7 2 . 73- 



CARANGIDJE. Body more or less compressed, oblong or sub-cylindrical. 

 One or two dorsals, spinous dorsal short, when present, and some- 

 times modified into tentacles or a suctorial disk, soft dorsal always long 

 when spinous is absent ; soft dorsal and anal similar, hinder portion of 

 both occasionally consisting of finlets ; ventrals thoracic, sometimes 

 rudimentary or absent. Lateral line with or without shield-like plates. 

 Scales small or absent. Eye lateral. Mouth small; teeth conical, 

 when present. Gill opening wide. Capros, 28 ; Caranx, 24; Lichia, 

 27 ; Naucrates, 25 ; Pammelas, 26. 



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