FIIOCEEDINGS OF TEE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



DIAGNOSIS OF THE SUBORDER PERCESOCES. 



Two doivsal fins, the first spinous and more or less remote from the 

 second; ventral fins abdominal, with 1 spine and 5 rays; third and 

 fourth superior pharyngeals of each side separate or anchylosed; lower 

 pharyngeals separate; pectorals elevated, nearly on a level with upper 

 part of clavicle; epiotics of adult produced backward and more or 

 less divided into bristlelike filaments; myodome present, opened or 

 closed posteriorly; opercles unarmed; parietals sej^arated by supra- 

 occipital; supraoccipital crest developed posteriorly, not extending 

 above level of balance of cranium ; postclavicle of superior and inferior 

 parts; anterior interhaemal not differentiated; epipleurals present; 

 coronoid bone present;^ suborbital ring without suborbital shelf. 



DIAGNOSIS OF THE SUPERFAMILY ATHERINOIDEA. 



Cleft of mouth not wide; teeth, when present, small, not set in sock- 

 ets; maxillary without supplemental bone; third and fourth superior 

 pharyngeals of each side anchylosed; supraclavicle reduced in size; 

 lower limb of iwsttemporal attached to opisthotic by ligament or suture; 

 exoccipitals not meeting above basioccipital ; alisphenoids not meet- 

 ing; ethmoid normal, not overlying prefrontals and vomer or extend- 

 ing to lateral edge of rostrum ; anterior neural spines laterally flattened ; 

 parapophyses developed on all abdominal vertebrae. 



DIAGNOSIS OF THE FAMILY ATHERINID^. 



Lower limb of post-temj)oral attached to opisthotic by ligament; 

 basisphenoid developed; myodome opening to exterior posteriorly; 

 region about foramen magnum not produced; superior pharyngeals 

 typical in shape, bearing teeth; vertebrae numerous, from 45 to 52; 

 first dorsal with from 3 to 8 spines; anal with 1 spine. 



DIAGNOSIS OF THE FAMILY MUGILID^E. 



Lower limb of post-temporal attached to cranium by dentate suture; 

 basisphenoid absent; myodome not opening to exterior posteriorly; 

 foramen magnum region produced; superior pharyngeals of complex 

 shape, not bearing teeth; vertebrae few in number, about 24; first 

 dorsal with about 4 spines; anal with 2 or 3 spines. 



' This character seems to have been made too much of by the systematists and not 

 enough of by the anatomists. Whether it is homologous with the coronoid as it 

 occurs in some reptiles, or is one of the osteological peculiarities common to fishes, 

 or whether it is developed with age, being the ossified eud of the ligament that is 

 attached to it, I will not attempt to say with the material at hand. The last sup- 

 position seems to be the least tenable, since the ossification is not a gradual transi- 

 tion from cartilage to bone, as we would expect in that case, but takes the form of a 

 distinct bone larger than the end of the ligament. I find it present in nearly every 

 species examined (my material being adult examples), among them the following 

 miscellaneous genera : Amiiirus, Cyprinus, Lucius, Alosa, Holocentrus, Pomoxys, Lobofes, 

 Roccus, Caranx, Arckosargns, Neomwnis, Tautoga, Pomatomiis, Bachycentron, Scorpw- 

 nichthys, Loplwlatilus, Melanogrammus, and Gadns. 



