114 ACANTHOPTERYGII. 



Family, XI— CORYPH^NID^ (part), Swainson. 



Branchiostegals from five to seven : pseudobranchiae present or absent. Body 

 oblong, or elevated and compressed. Gill-openings wide. Eyes lateral. No 

 osseous articulation between the infraorbital bones and the preopercle. Teeth 

 in the jaws small, present or absent on the palate, none in the oesophagus. 

 A single elongated dorsal fin without any distinct spinous division in the adult : 

 ventrals thoracic (jugular in Pteradis). No prominent papilla near the vent. 

 Air-bladder present or absent. Pyloric appendages few or many. Vertebrae 

 exceed 10/14. 



Geographical distribiifion. — CosTnopolitan and pelagic, and thotigli ctiefly 

 confined to tropical and temperate seas, some are foand in high northern latitudes. 



Genus I. — Brama (Schneider) Bisso. 



Taraxes, Lowe (Yormg). Pten/comhus, Fries (Young). 



Branchiostegals seven : pseudohranchioi ivell developed. Body elevated and 

 compressed. Cleft of inouth oblique : lower jaw the longer. Opercles entire. 

 Teeth, in the jairs, the outer row being much the strongest: deciduous ones on the 

 vomer and palatines. Dorsal fin inany rayed, the frst three or four being spines: 

 anal with two spines and similar to dorsal. Ventrals .small and thoracic. Caudal 

 deeply forl;ed. Scalrs extended onto the head and vertical fins. Air-bladder absent. 

 Pyloric appendages few. 



Taraxes, Lowe, was considered by Poey (An. See. Esp. v. p. 148) to be probably 

 the young of this species. Liitken (SpoUa Atlantica) has observed that smooth 

 or spinate scales in these fishes may be symptomatic of age, not of distinct species, 

 much less of genera. 



Geograp)hical distribution. — These pelagic forms are found from the Faroe Isles 

 in the north, where they are represented by Brama Bayii, which extends south- 

 wards, being common in parts of the Mediterranean and found in the Atlantic as 

 far south as the Cape of Good Hope. B. longipinnis, Lowe, which may be 

 B. Easchii, Esmark, seems (if a distinct species) to extend from the Baltic to 

 Madeira. The nearly allied B. Japonica, Hilgendorf, has been taken at Chili, 

 New Zealand, and also in the more northern Japan. Whether B. Dussumieri, c. v, 

 and B. Orcini, c. y, are not the young of this last species appears very questionable. 

 This genus extends throughout most of the temperate and tropical seas of 

 Western Europe and Africa : also the Pacific Ocean, but does not appear to have 

 been recorded from the eastern coast of America, although the nearly allied 

 form of Pteradis has been obtained off Carolina. 



1. Brama Raii, Plate XLI. 



i?ra9?ia marma, Willughby, App. p. 17, t. V. 12; Ray, Syn. Pise. p. 115; 

 Plem. Brit. An. p. 210. Castagnole, Duhamel, Peches, iii, p. 26, pi. v, f. 1. 

 Toothed gilt head, Pennant, Brit. Zool. (Ed. 1776) iii, p. 243, pi. xliii (Ed. 2, 1812) 

 iii, p. 331, pi. liv ; Montagu, Trans. Linn. Soc. vii, p. 292. 



Spams raii, Bloch, t. cclxxiii ; Donovan, Brit. Fish, ii, pi. xxxvii ; Shaw, Zool. 

 iv, p. 404. 



