THE ANNALS 



AND 



MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



[EIGHTH SERIES.] 



" jHT litora spargite museum. 



Naiades, et cireiim vitrens oonsidite fontes : 

 PoUiee virp^inco t.-n.-ros liio carpite flores: 

 FloribuB et jiii'tuni, divie, rrplete canistrum. 

 At V08, o Nyniphee Crateriiles, ite sub undas ; 

 Ite, recuTTato variata eorallia trunco 

 Vellite muBcosis e rupibus, et mihi conchas 

 Ferte, Deas pelagi, et pingui conchylia aucco." 



N.Farthenii Gianneftasi, Eel. 1 . 



No. 37. JANUARY 1911. 



I. — T/ie Anatomy and Classification of the Tdeostean Fishes 

 of the Orders Berycomorphi and Xenoberi/ces. By C Tate 

 Hegan, M.A. 



(Published by permission of the Trustees of the British Museum.) 

 [Plate I.] 



The Berycomorplious fishes are a group of considerable 

 interest, for on the one hand they approach the Perches iu 

 general structure, and on the other they retain many features 

 of generalization which indicate their relationship to primitive 

 Clupeoids. 



The order was well represented in Cretaceous times, and 

 the fossil genera were included in the fourth volume of 

 I)r. Smith Woodward's ' Catalogue of Fossil Fishes,' issued 

 in 1901. The best descriptions and figures of the extinct 

 species are those of W. von der Marck (Palseont. xi. 1863) 

 and of Smith Woodward (Palteontogr. Soc. 1902). Dr. E. 

 C. Starks has given a useful account of the osteology of 

 some of the recent types, with figures of the crania of 

 Polymixia, Beryx, Hoplostethus, Monocentris, and Halo- 

 cenirus (Proc. U.S. Nat. Mas. xxvii. 1904) ; I fully agree 

 with him that the Perapheridse do not pertain to this order, 

 but to the Percomorphi. The skeleton of Holocentrus has 

 been figured by Agassiz (Poiss. Foss. vol. iv.) and that of 

 ^eryx by Giinther {' Challenger ' Deep-sea Fishes). 

 Aim. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 8. Vol. vii. 1 



