1H ACANTHOPTERYGII. 



Family, XI— CORYPH^ENID^E (part), Swainson. 



Branchiostegals from five to seven : pseudobranchise 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 (esophagus. 

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

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

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

 exceed 10/14. 



Geographical distribution. — Cosmopolitan and pelagic, and though chiefly 

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



Genus I. — Brama (Schneider) Bisso. 



Taraxes, Lowe (Young). Pterycombus, Fries (Young). 



Brancliiostegals seven : pseudobranchiai well developed. Body elevated and 

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

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

 vomer and palatines. Dorsal fin many rayed, the first three or four being spines : 

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

 deeply forked. Scales extended on to the head and vertical fins. Air-bladder absent. 

 Pyloric appendages few. 



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

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

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

 much less of genera. 



Geographical 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 tbe Mediterranean and found in the Atlantic as 

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

 B. Baschii, 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. Bussumieri, c. v, 

 and B. Orcini, c. v, 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 Pteraclis has been obtained off Carolina. 



1. Brama Raii, Plate XLI. 



Brama marina, Willughby, App. p. 17, t. V. 12 ; Bay, Syn. Pise. p. 115 ; 

 Flem. 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. 



Sparus raii, Bloch, t. eclxxiii ; Donovan, Brit. Fish, ii, pi. xxxvii ; Shaw, Zool. 

 iv, p. 404. 



