CARPS AND CAT-FISHES. 101 



longer than the premaxilla, and beset with teeth. Scales are 

 absent or are exceedingly delicate ; luminous spots, regularly 

 arranged, are present in most of the species. The eyes are large, 

 a hyoid barbel is frequently present, the gill-opening is wide, the 

 opercular skeleton reduced. An adipose fin is present in some 

 genera. The fishes are predatory and some have a formidable 

 dentition. The chief genera are Stomias (299), Malacosteus 

 (fig. 5, 979, Deep-sea Series, Cabinet-case 44), Chaulioclus (fig. 8, 

 9~5, Cabinet-case 44) and Stemoptyx, the last two being by 

 some authorities placed in a special family, the Sternoptychidae. 

 Within the family Stomiatidte examples occur of the reduction of 

 the pectoral fins before the pelvic; in cases in which the paired 

 fins undergo reduction it is almost always the pelvic fins which 

 disappear first, e.g. among the Eels, Sand-launces, Blennies and 

 Scabbard- fishes. 



The Gonorhynchidae (300) are aberrant fishes, the affinities of Gono- 

 which are not definitely known; they have been associated by 

 various authors with the Cyprinoids, the Scopeloids, and the 

 Salmonoids. The body is long and cylindrical, without adipose 

 fin. The scales are narrow, small and with spiny edge, deeply 

 imbricated, and extending over tbe cheeks and gill-covers as well 

 as over the body. The snout is more or less pointed, with a single 

 barbel. The mouth is small and toothless ; it is inferior in 

 position and is surrounded by thick, fringed lips. 



Cyprixi-siluriformes (Carps and Cat-fishes). 



The Cyprini-siluriformes, also known as Ostariophysi, are a Wall- 

 suborder of fishes which, though many exhibit remarkable case °* 

 differences in general appearance, all agree in the coalescence of 

 the foremost vertebras, usually four in number, and the detachment 

 of some of their lateral parts to form a link-work known as the 

 \Veberian ossicles, which serve to connect the air-bladder with 

 the ear (see specimen 366 in Wall-case 9). The fishes agree 

 with those of the previous suborder, the Salmoni-clupeiformes, in 

 the presence of a mesocoracoid bone in the pectoral girdle, a bone 

 which does not occur in any of the suborders that follow. 

 The fins are without spines, or the dorsal and pectoral fins may 



