646 



TELEOSTEI 



covers and ventral fins are armed. This species, which attains a 

 length of 8 inches, is found in estuaries and fresh waters of 

 India, Ceylon, Burma, and the Malay Peninsula and Archipelago ; 

 3 other species occur in the Malay Ai'chipelago, and 1 1 in Africa. 



Sub-Order 9. Anacanthini. 



Air-bladder without open duct. Parietal bones separated by 

 the supraoccipital ; prootic and exoccipital separated by the 

 enlarged opisthotic. Pectoral arch suspended from the skull ; 

 no mesocoracoid arch. Ventral fins below or in front of the 

 pectorals, the pelvic bones posterior to the clavicular symphysis 

 and only loosely attached to it by ligament. 



Pins without spines ; caudal, if present, without expanded 

 hypural, perfectly symmetrical, and supported by the neural and 

 haemal spines of the posterior vertebrae and by basal bones 

 similar to those supporting the dorsal and anal rays. This type 

 of caudal fin must be regarded, as I have pointed out,^ as 

 secondary, the Gadidae being, no doubt, derived from Fishes like 

 the Macruridae, in which the honiocercal fin had been lost. The 

 scapular foramen or fenestra is nearly always between the 

 scapular and coracoid bones, as in the Trachinidae and several 

 alhed families, not in the coracoid, as in the other Acantho- 

 pterygians. The first two vertebrae have no epipleurals. 



Mr. C. Tate Eegan,- who has recently given a good definition 

 of the Anacanthini, divides them into three families. 



FiQ. 396.— Skeleton of caudal fin of Gadus vir. 



' Ann. May. Nat. Hist. IJ), x. 1902, p. 295. 



Jbid. (7), xi. 1903, p. 460. 



