838 Bulletin 47, United States National Museum. 



by thin skin. Eye lateral, usually large. Mouth wide, oblique. Pre- 

 maxillaries protractile; maxillary rather large, usually with a supple- 

 mental bone. Suborbitals narrow, not sheathing the cheeks. Bands of 

 villiform teeth on jaws, and usually on vomer and palatines ; canines 

 sometimes present. Opercular bones usually spinous.. Branchiostegals 



7 or 8. Gill membranes separate, free from the isthmus. Gills 4, a slit 

 behind the fourth. Pseudobranchise present. Gill rakers moderate. 

 Cheeks and opercles scaly. No barbels. Dorsal fin continuous, with 2 to 



8 weak spines; anal with 2 to 4 spines; ventral fins thoracic, mostly I, 

 7, the number of rays usually greater than I, 5; caudal fin usually forked. 

 Pyloric cceca numerous. Genera 6 or 8 ; species about 40. Fishes mostly 

 of the deep seas ; the general color red or black. This group is an ancient 

 type, a great number of extinct species being now known. (Berycidce, 

 Giinther, Cat., I, 8-50, 1859, exclusive of certain genera.) 



ANOPLOGASTRINJE : 



a. Scales small, granular or leaf-like ; teeth unequal ; palatines toothless ; mouth very wide 

 and oblique. 



b. Scales leaf-like, pedunculated ; teeth villiform, with two pairs of long fang-like teeth 



above, and three below. CAULOLEPIS, 376. 



bb. Scales reduced to minute asperities; teeth villiform, some of those in the lower jaw 

 enlarged. ANOPLOGASTER, 377. 



MELAMPHAIN;E : 

 aa. Scales cycloid ; teeth villiform, none on palatines ; head large and thick. 



c. Teeth small, cardiform; lower jaw projecting; scales thin ; body short, compressed. 



POROMITRA, 378. 

 cc. Teeth in villiform bands ; scales large ; spinous dorsal short. 



d. Anal inserted under last rays of dorsal ; anal with one spine ; dorsal with three. 



PLECTROMUS, 379. 

 BF,RYCIN;E : 

 nan. Scales ctenoid ; teeth villiform on jaws, palatines, and vomer. 



e. Muzzle short ; chin projecting ; preopercle spineless ; opercles serrated ; anal rays IV, 

 26 to 30 ; ventrals, I, 10. BERYX, 380. 



376. CAULOLEPIS,* Gill. 



Caulolepis, GILL, Forest and Stream, xxi, August 30, 1883, and in Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vi, 

 1884, 258, (longidens). 



Contour laterally oval or broad pyriform, the body compressed, covered 

 with small, pedunculated, leaf-like scales ; forehead abruptly declivous; 



*Dr. Gill (in Goode & Bean, Oceanic Ichthyology), adds the following details : 

 Body compressed, pyriform, highest in front, and with the dorsal and inferior outlines con- 

 verging to caudal peduncle, which is moderately long and slender. Scales small and not or 

 scarcely imbricated, upraised by peduncles, and with the surface extended and dentate behind. 

 Lateral line distinct and developed as a groove running parallel with the back and continuous 

 to the base of the caudal fin. Head higher than long, with the cranial portion very declivous, 

 and with the suspensorial portion obliquely extended downward and backward ; the cranium 

 al>ove with three naked membranous ureas, an anterior pair pointed forward and diverging to 

 receive the ascending process of the intermaxillariesand a median hastiform one behind; also with 

 a naked horseshoe-shaped area around the nape, the naked spaces being separated by the bony 

 bars limiting the large muciferous cavities; suborbital bones enlarged, sculptured, and with 

 small, erect spines; the first with three radiating bars; the second largest, sending four 

 depending processes, three forward or downward, and another articulating with the preoper- 

 culum above its angle; the postorbital expanding distally and articulating with the preoperculum 

 above; the interspaces covered by a tense skin with the extension of the scales embedded in it. 

 Preoperculum angulated downward and backward, spinigerous at the angle and with no hori- 

 zontal lines ; opercular apparatus much reduced ; the operculum extended downward, with 



