16 THE CYPRINODONTS. 
de cette famille tous les genres qui, dans le regne animal de Cuvier, suivent 
les Loches proprement dites, savoir les Anableps, les Pacilia, les Lebias, les 
Fundulus, les Molinesia et les Cyprinodon, pour en faire une petite famille a 
part, sous le nom de Cyprinodontes.” To this family he refers again in 1839, 
in 1844, and in 1854. It was adopted by Miiller, 1845 and 1846, Miiller and 
Troschel, 1848, Gill, 1856, Poey, 1858, Kner and Steindachner, 1865, Fitz- 
inger, 1873, and others, under the name first given, and under the form 
Cyprinodontidx, its adoption has been pretty near general. Valenciennes, 
1846, retained Cuvier’s name Cyprinoides, without separating the families 
and was imitated by Poey, 1855, with the orthography Cyprinoidei and 
Cyprinoidea. Owen, 1846, renders the name Cyprinodontidx, mentioning 
“Umber” as the type, and this form of the title has been somewhat gen- 
erally accepted, but with the exclusion of the Umbridx. Swainson, 1839, 
divided the Cyprinidz and put his Cyprine in the Salmonide as a sub- 
family, while he raised the remainder to family rank as the Cobitide with 
three sub-families, Cobitinze, Anablepidee, and Peeciline. McClelland, 1839, 
has in his family Cyprinide, what he calls “‘a small group” containing Pe- 
cilia, Lebias, Aplocheilus, Fundulus, Molinesia, and Cyprinodon. MacLeay, 
1842, placed the Poecilianz, Cobitine, and Platycarine in his Apalopterine, 
a division of the Cyprinide. Bleeker, 1859, divides his Cyprinodontoidei 
into Cyprinodontini, Aplocheilini, Orestiasini, and Anablepini. In 1863, the 
family became Cyprinodontoides, the sub-families Cyprinodontiformes, with 
stirps Tellianini, Cyprinodontini, and Belonesocini, and Aplocheiliformes, with 
stirps Orestiasiformes and Anablepiformes. Gill, 1856, adopted the Cyprino- 
dontes ; in 1861, his family became the Cyprinodontoide, with sub-families 
Cyprinodontine and Hydrargyrine ; in 1865 he took up Peeciliidee, as from 
Bonaparte ; in 1872 he grouped together the Esocide, Umbride, and Cypri- 
nodontide under the name Cyprinodontoidea; and in 1894, ignoring the 
fact that it was preoccupied in insects, he again prefers Peeciliide. This 
last, or his Cyprinodontide of 1872, is the equivalent of the Cyprinodontidze 
of Giinther and later authors. Giinther, 1866, subdivides the Cyprinodon- 
tide into Cyprinodontide carnivore, containing the Cyprinodontina, the Fun- 
dulina, Jenynsiina, and the Anablepina, and the Cyprinodontide limnophage, 
including such genera as are here placed in the Poeciliine. 
In the present writing the characters and contents of the family and of 
the genera vary somewhat from those of other authors, as is indicated in the 
synopsis below. Though the structure of the eye, of the anal fin and of 
