COTTOMORPHS. 
147 
means confined to these fishes. It also occurs both in 
a North Pacific family, ffeterolemdce ( Chiridce ), which 
is remarkable in several other respects, and which is 
now regarded by Gunther" as belonging to the Blen- 
nomorphi, and in the Gobiomorph family Cyclop- 
teridce. In the Cottomorphi the cheek-armour may be 
traced through different degrees of development, from 
its perfect form in the Trigloid type to the far nar- 
rower osseous bridge across the cheek in the true 
Cottoids. 
Fam. S C 0 R P M NIB Wu 
Body perciform ( elongated , oval and more or less compressed) or of irregular shape, without cuirass, covered 
regularly with scales or naked. The spinous-ray ed part of the dorsal fin longer (with more rays ) than the soft- 
rayed part. Anal fin , as a rule, with strong spinous rays in the anterior part. Lower rays of the pectoral fins, 
as well as the uppermost 2 or 3, and sometimes all the rays of these fins, simple. Pseudobran cliice, and also, as 
a ride, the air-bladder, well-developed. 
Most of the genera within this family, including 
many singular forms with long dermal filaments on 
the body or with greatly elongated fin-rays, with the 
head depressed into the form of a saddle or in some 
other way deformed, and many of them with brilliant 
colours, belong to the sub-tropical and the neighbouring 
parts of the temperate seas, especially of the Pacific. 
Out of a score of recognised genera with about 200 
known species altogether, only two species, each repre- 
senting a distinct genus, belong to the Scandinavian 
fauna. These two genera, which in their extreme 
forms are most unlike each other, are still so nearly 
connected by intermediate forms that the boundary 
between them is, we may almost say, arbitrary. The 
changes of growth in the better-known of the Scandi- 
navian species, also show that there exists a natural 
course of development between these genera, which 
starts from the true Scorpcenoids, with fewer rays in 
the dorsal and anal fins, more spines on the head and 
a deeper depression in the forehead, and with the maxil- 
laries naked or almost so, and passes to the almost 
Perciform Sebastes, with more fin-rays, smoother head 
and a closer covering of scales on the maxillaries as 
well as on the rest of the body. The last character 
is eventually developed to such a degree that in Se- 
bastes and Sebastodes , its representative in the Pacific, 
small (“accessory”, Jord., Gilb.) scales press in be- 
tween the ordinary scales of the body. 
a Systematic synopsis in Cat. Brit. Mus., Fish.; see also Study of fishes, p. 491; Handb. Ichth., p. 350. We must remark, however, 
that these fishes have a large number of rays in the caudal fin and are thus distinguished from the rest of the Anomalopteri . 
b Gill, Canad. Natur., Geol., n. ser., vol. II (1865), p. 247. 
