80 CHECK LIST OF THE 



Body usually oblong, covered with scales, which are typically ctenoid, 

 not smooth or spinous, and of moderate size. Lateral line typically pre- 

 sent and concurrent with the back. Head usually compressed laterally 

 and with the cheeks and opercles scaly. Mouth various, usually terminal 

 and with lateral cleft, the teeth various, but typically pointed, arranged 

 in bands on the jaws, vomer, and palatine bones; gill rakers usually sharp, 

 stoutish, armed with teeth ; lower pharyngeal almost always separate, 

 usually armed with cardiform teeth ; third upper pharyngeal moderately 

 enlarged, elongate, not articulated to the cranium, the fourth typically 

 present ; gills four, and a slit behind the fourth ; gill membranes free from 

 the isthmus, and usually not connected with each other ; pseudobranchia? 

 typically well developed. Branchiostegals few, usually six or seven. No 

 bony stay connecting the suborbital chain to the preopercle. Opercular 

 hones all well developed, normal in position, the preopercle typically ser- 

 rate. No cranial spines. Dorsal fin variously developed, but always with 

 some spines in front, these typically stiff and sharp. Anal fin typically 

 short, usually with three spines, sometimes with a larger number, some- 

 times with none; caudal fin various, usually lunate; pectoral fins well 

 developed, inserted high ; ventral fins always present, thoracic, separate, 

 almost always with one spine and five rays. Air bladder usually present, 

 without air duct in the adult ; simple and generally adherent to the walls 

 of the abdomen. Stomach caecal, with pyloric appendages, the intestines 

 short in most species, long in the herbivorous forms. Vertebral column 

 well developed, none of the vertebrae specially modified ; shoulder girdle 

 normally developed, the post temporal bifurcate, attached to the skull, but 

 not coossified with it ; none of the epipleural bones attached to the centre 

 of the vertebrae ; coracoids normal ; the hypercoracoid always with a 

 median foramen, the basal bones of the pectoral (actinosts or pterygials) 

 normally developec^, three or four in number, hour-glass shaped, longer 

 than broad ; premaxillary forming the border of the mouth usually pro- 

 tractile ; bones of the mandible distinct. 



Family CENTRARCHID^. (The Sunfishes.) 



Body more or less shortened and compressed ; the regions above and 

 below the axis of the body nearly equally developed and corresponding to 

 each other, and the pseudobranchise imperfect. Head compressed. Mouth 

 terminal, large or small. Teeth in villiform bands, the outer slightly 

 enlarged, without canines ; teeth present on premaxillaries, lower jaw and 

 vomer, and usually on palatines, also sometimes on tongue, pterygoids 

 and hyoid. Premaxillaries protractile; maxillary with a supplemental 

 bone in the large-moulhed forms, sometimes minute or obsolete in others. 

 Preopercle entire or somewhat serrate ; opercle ending in two Hat points, 

 or prolonged in a black flap at the angle. Preorbital short and deep ; first 

 suborbital narrow; the maxillary not slipping under its edge. Nostrils, 



