Salmoperce and Other Transitional Groups 245 
The opah is a rare fish, swimming slowly near the surface and 
ranging very widely in all the warm seas. It was first noticed 
in Norway by Gunner, the good bishop of Throndhjem, about 
1780. It was soon after recorded from Elsinore, Torbay, and 
Madeira, and is occasionally taken in various places in Europe. 
It is also recorded from Newfoundland, Sable Island, Cuba, 
Monterey, San Pedro Point (near San Francisco), Santa Cata- 
lina, Honolulu, and Japan. 
The specimen studied by the writer came ashore at Mon- 
terey in an injured condition, having been worsted in a struggle 
with some better-armed fish. 
Allied to Lampris is the imposing extinct species known as 
Semiophorus velifer from the Eocene of Monte Bolca near Ve- 
rona, the type of the extinct family of Semtophoride. This is 
a deep compressed fish, with very high spinous dorsal and 
very long, many-rayed ventrals. Other related species are 
known also from the Eocene. There is no evidence of any 
close relation between these fishes with Caranx or Platax, with 
which Woodward associates Semiophorus. 
The Semiophoride differ from the Lampridide chiefly in the 
development of the spinous dorsal fin, which is composed of 
many slender rays. : 
Suborder Zeoidea.—Not far from the Selenichthyes and 
the Berycoidei we may place the singular group of John 
Dories, or zeoid fishes. These have the ventral fins thoracic 
and many-rayed, the dorsal fin provided with spines, and the 
post-temporal, as in the Chetodontide, fused with the skull. 
Dr. Boulenger calls attention to the close relation of these 
fishes to the flounders, and suggests the possible derivation of 
both from a synthetic type, the Amphistiide, found in the 
European Eocene. The Amphistiide, Zeide, and flounders 
are united by him to form the group or suborder Zeorhombt, 
characterized by the thoracic ventrals, which have the rays 
not I, 5 in number, by the progressive degeneration of the fin- 
spines and the progressive twisting of the cranium, bringing 
the two eyes to the same side of the head. It is not certain 
that the flounders are really derived from Zeus-like fishes, but 
no other guess as to their origin has more elements of proba- 
bility. 
