ACTINOPTERI. 173 



erate. Gills 4, slit after fourth. Pseudobranchise present. Gill- 

 membranes separate, free from isthmus. Branchiostegals 7 or 8. 

 Pyloric coeca numerous. Body covered with ctenoid or cycloid 

 scales, foliate or granular. Cheeks and opercles scaly. Head 

 with large muciferous cavities, covered by thin skin. Dorsal fin 

 continuous, spines weak, 2 to 8. Anal spines 2 to 4. Caudal 

 usually forked. Ventrals thoracic, mostly I, 7, number of rays 

 usually greater than I, 5. 



Genera about eight, of which three are extinct. Most of the 

 existing forms are bathyic. 



Genus BERYX Cuvier. 



Beryx Cuvier, Regne Animal, Ed. 2, II, 1829, p. 151. Type Beryx decadac- 

 tylus Cuvier, first species. 



Bodv deep, compressed, abdomen trenchant without enlarged 

 scutes. Head large. Snout short. Eye large. Mouth oblique, 

 mandible end prominent. Both jaws, vomer and palatines with 

 villi form teeth. Opercles serrated. Opercle usually with spine. 

 Preopercle unarmed. Air-vessel simple. Pyloric cceca numer- 

 ous. Body covered with rather large ctenoid scales regularly ar- 

 ranged. Head with thin bones and high ridges with deep mucif- 

 erous cavities. Dorsal continuous, with four to six spines. Anal 

 spines 4, rays 26 to 30. Ventrals with about ten articulated 

 rays. 



About six fossil species have been described. The existing 

 species are brilliantly colored red and occur in deep water. 



Beryx insculptus Cope. 



Beryx insculptus Cope, Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc. Phila., XI, 1869, p. 240. 



Lower Greensand bed of Monmouth Co., N. J. Dark clay marl just 



below Upper Greensand bed at Hornerstown. 

 Cope, 1. c, XII, 1872, p. 357 (name only). 

 Cope, Rep. U. S. Geol. Surv. Terr., II, 1875, p. 272, PI. 52, fig. 4. 



(Greensand No. 5, N. J.) 

 Hussakof, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., XXV, 1908, p. 63, fig. 31 (type). 



Body stout. Scapular arch and cranium strongly marked with 

 narrow elevated ridges which form a reticulate relief. Scales 



