10 CHECK LIST OF FISHES OF THE DOMINION 



such are represented in our waters) and with the Batoidei on the other. Discarding the name 

 Ganoidei as untenable, I innovate the classification of the Teleostomi by dividing them primarily 

 into two super-orders — Chondrostei and Teleostei. There is a closer relationship between the 

 Holostei (Gar-pikes and Amia calva) in many essential particulars and the Teleostei, as recognized", 

 than there is between the former and the Chondrostei. Therefore I include the Holostei as an 

 order in the Teleostei. The two names to be sure signify much the same thing, but Holostei may 

 stand as the name of the most primitive order of the super-order. Conformity to system requires 

 an order in the super-order Chondrostei, although the super-order and order embrace the same. 

 This I give as Acipenseroidei (the paddle-fish and the sturgeons) . The super-order Teleostei, thus 

 understood, contains XV orders (only two of which, Symbranchii and Opisthomi, are not repre- 

 sented in Canada) and I follow Boulenger in their names and arrangement, except that with him 

 these orders (saving Holostei — here included in Teleostei) are sub-orders, and the super-order — 

 Teleostei — an order; and his divisions of the Acanthopterygii I regard as sub-orders. Quotations 

 from Boulenger given as foot-notes in the scheme of classification are intended as explanatory as to 

 why I adopt his classification. In sub-dividing orders into families and genera, I have in substance 

 been guided by Jordan and Evermann, and in the names of the species I essentially follow them; 

 for their assiduity in having determined the priority of the names of the fishes of the continent- 

 of North and Middle America is obvious and manifest, and speaks for itself. Certain names em- 

 ployed by Jordan and Evermann, not always with them equal in rank, I have moreover adopted 

 as sub-orders of some orders. 



The check-list is followed by a brief glossary of technical terms, and indices of technical and 

 vernacular names; and the work is illustrated with 14 plates, from photographs of mounted speci- 

 mens and casts in the Canadian Fisheries Museum. 



ANDREW HALKETT, 



Naturalist, Department Marine and Fisheries. 

 Canadian Fisheries Museum, 



Ottawa, Canada, 1913. 



