The Blennies: Blenniide 73% 
Ateleopodidz.—The sniall family of Ateleopodide includes long- 
bodied, deep-water fishes of the Pacific, resembling Macrourus, 
but with smooth scales. The group has the coracoids as in 
Brotulide, and the actinosts are united in an undivided plate. 
Ateleopus japonicus is the species taken in Japan. 
Suborder HaplodociimWe may here place the peculiar family 
of Batrachoidide, or toadfishes. It constitutes the suborder 
of Haplodoct (axAcos, simple; so«os, shaft) from the sim- 
ple form of the post-temporal. This order is characterized 
by the undivided post-temporal bone and by the reduction 
of the gill-arches to three. A second bone behind the post- 
temporal connects the shoulder-girdle above to the vertebral 
column. The coracoid bones are more or less elongate, suggest- 
ing the arm seen in pediculate fishes. 
The single family has the general form of the Cottide, the 
body robust, with large head, large mouth, strong teeth, and 
short spinous dorsal fin. The shoulder-girdle and its structures 
differ little from the blennioid type. There are no pseudo- 
branchiez and the tail is homocercal. The species are relatively 
few, chiefly confined to the warm seas and mostly American, 
none being found in Europe or Asia. Some of them ascend 
rivers, and all are carnivorous and voracious. None are valued 
Fic. 648.—Leopard Toadfish, Opsanus pardus (Goode & Bean). Pensacola. 
as food, being coarse-grained in flesh. The group is probably 
nearest allied to the Trachinide or Uranoscopide. 
Opsanus tau, the common toadfish, or oyster-fish, of our 
Atlantic coast, is very common in rocky places, the young 
clinging to stones by a sucking-disk on the belly, a structure 
