CURTID& 



355 



of the preopercular, the rather small scales, and the serration of the lower border 

 of the body, The palatines and vomers carry villiform teeth ; the single dorsal fin 

 has from three to six spines, the anal six rays, and the tail is strongly forked. 

 The allied Anoplogaster, of the Tropical Atlantic, is devoid of scales. In both 

 genera the eye is very large. The typical genus Beryx, which has likewise but 

 a single dorsal, may be distinguished by the smooth abdomen, and the lack of a 

 spine on the preopercular. At the present day this genus is known from the 

 Tropical Atlantic, Madeira, and the seas of Australia and Japan ; while in a fossil 

 state it is abundant in the Chalk. Two barbels at the throat serve to distinguish 



NEW ZEALAND TRACHICHTHYS (f nat. size). 



Polymixia ; while in several of the other genera, such as Holocentrum, the dorsal 

 fin is double. Spread over all tropical seas, the latter genus is likewise one of 

 those dating from the Cretaceous epoch. 



Families CURTID^ and 



Each of these two unimportant families represents a group of equal rank 

 with the perch-like division of the suborder; the first being characterised by 

 having the single dorsal fin much shorter than the long and many-rayed anal. The 

 compressed body (as shown in the figure of Pempheris mangula, on the right side 

 of the illustration on p. 354) is oblong in form, deep in front, and sharply narrow- 

 ing towards the tail If developed at all, the spines of the short dorsal are few in 

 number; the scales are small or medium in size; and both the jaws, palatines, and 

 vomers bear villiform teeth. While the typical genus Curtus is confined to the 

 Indian seas, Pempheris ranges over the Indian Ocean, the Malayan seas, and the 

 tropical parts of the Pacific. The presence of a number of filaments, which may 

 attain an enormous length, is the most distinctive feature of the second family, 



