On Venus stimpsoni, Gould. 133 



ossifications ; it bears a pair of long posterior cornua and 

 is niovablj articulated to the lower surface of the coracoid 

 cartilages. No air-bladder. 



Family AteleopidaB. 



^J'he genus Ateleojms or Podateles, with four species from 

 the Iiido-Pacitic, was placed by Giinther near the Macruridaa. 

 Boulenger examined the pectoral arch in Ateleopus tndicus, 

 and finding that tiie foramen was intrascapular placed it near 

 tlie Opliidiidte among the jugular Acanthoptei-ygians, In a 

 ])aper read at the Zoological Congress of 1907 I made this 

 genus the type of a separate order, Chondrobrachii, pointing 

 out the improbability that it was related to fishes such as the 

 Blennioids, wiiicii have the pelvic bones directly attached 

 to the cleithra above the symphysis. 



Tiie evidence of relationship to Aulopus now seems to me 

 so clear that I am disposed to abandon the order Chondro- 

 brachii. Ateleopus scarcely differs more from Aulopus in fin- 

 structure than Coilia does from Engraidis, and it is especially 

 noteworthy that the many-jointed simple or bifid pelvic ray 

 is exactly similar to tiie outer pelvic rays of Aulopus ; it lias 

 been wrongly described as two rays bound together ; ratlier 

 it is the two components of one ray which remain distinct 

 and may separate from each other distally. The resemblances 

 and differences in the pectoral arch and pelvis will be seen 

 on comparing figures o and 7. The resemblances in the skull 

 have already been pointed out, but the skeletal diff'erences, 

 mainly due to degeneration or to a persistence of the con- 

 ditions usually found in very young fish, seem to justify the 

 recognition of a separate suborder for Ateleopus. 



XIV. — A Description o/ Venus stimpsoni, Gould. 

 By -i. J. Jukes-Browne, B.A., F.U.S., M.M.S. 



[Plate IV.] 



The shell now described and figured (Plate IV.) was first 

 made known and briefly described by A. G. Gould in 1861 * 

 and 1862 tj but was not figured by him, nor has any sub- 

 sequent writer published a figure of it, probably because very 



♦ Boston Soc. Nat. Hist. vol. viii. (1861). 

 t ' Otia Conchologica,' p. 169 (Boston, 1862). 



