0 NOM OIIP H 0 U S FI S H ES . 
463 
</: Gill-openings large; branchiostegal 
membranes united to each other to 
a greater or less extent and free from 
the isthmus. 
a: Anterior part of the dorsal fin- 
system separated into a distinct 
fin, or at least with the anterior 
rays elongated. Fam. Macruridce. 
(3: No distinct anterior dorsal fin Fam. Ophidiidce. 
b: Gill-openings small; branchiostegal 
membranes united by the skin of the 
body into a broad isthmus. Fam. Tgjcodidce. 
Fam. G A D I D iE. 
Body elongated , compressed, clavate or fusiform, and covered with thin cycloid scales. Caudal fin distinct from 
the other vertical fins a . Jaws furnished with teeth. Gill-openings large; branchiostegal membranes more or less 
completely free from the isthmus. Pseudobranchice wanting, or glandular. Air-bladder and pyloric appendages 
generally well-developed. 
The Cod-family contains numerous forms: about 
80 species, distributed among 25 genera, are known at 
present * * * 6 . Almost all these forms are marine fishes, but 
the well-known Burbot-genus lives in fresh or brackish 
water. A great part of the marine fishes are deep-sea 
forms, properly so called, some of them descending to 
depths of about 2,000 fathoms, and all of them, like 
other forms of this nature, probably having a wide geo- 
graphical range, even between the Tropics. The rest 
of the family, which frequent water of less depth, from 
the surface down to a depth of about 300 fathoms — - 
though some of them have been found in 600 fathoms 
of water — are, almost all, inhabitants of the Frigid 
and Temperate Zones, only one genus belonging to the 
surface regions of the Tropics 0 . The development of 
the family is incomparably more diversified in the north- 
ern seas than elsewhere, and there the Cod-fishery has 
long been one of the most lucrative to the fishermen 
of many nations. 
Of the peculiarities of the skeleton we have already 
remarked, in a comparison between this family and the 
preceding one, the lobate process on the upper (poste- 
rior) side of the intermaxillary bones, which in the 
Codfishes is especially well-developed, and generally 
renders these bones so easily recognisable (fig. 118, /). 
The nasal process (») of these bones, on the other hand, 
is short, the snout being only slightly, if at all pro- 
trusile. The cephalic system of the lateral line is fur- 
nished with well-developed ducts and cavities in the 
bones belonging to the dermo-skeleton. In the occipital 
“ Strinsia tinea, an imperfectly known Mediterranean 
generally included among the Gadidce, but is referred by the 
turn out to be identical with Uraleptus Maraldi, 
6 In Jordan and Gilbert’s statement of 35 
is included. 
0 Bregmaceros , with two species from India 
of Mexico. 
region we are particularly struck by the wide expansion 
of the styloid bone ( opistlioticum ), the bone with which 
the anterior end of the lower branch of the posttem- 
poral bone articulates or coalesces, and which in this 
series is generally larger than the petrosal bone (pro- 
oticurn) in front of it, or at least equal in size to the 
latter. The ventral fins are suspended from the inner 
surface of the anterior part of the clavicle by the an- 
terior end of the pelvic bones. The vertebrae of the 
Fig. 118. Intermaxillary bones of the Polar Cod ( Gadus saida), 
magn. 2 diam. 1, 3, 5, and 7 from a specimen 205 mm. long, from 
the White Sea; 2, 4, G, and 8 from the Glacial clay at Lomnia 
(Scania). 1 and 2 seen from the outside, 3 and 4 from the inside, 
5 and 6 from above, 7 and 8 from below. I, the lobate process; 
n, the nasal process; ar, the articular process. 
body are characterized by the marked and often singular 
development of their transverse processes. The first two 
vertebrae are generally without ribs; the first of all is 
often firmly united by its body and neural arch to the 
occipital bone. The following (2 — 5, generally 4) ver- 
tebras are furnished with terete, wand-like ribs, curved 
as in the Cod, or straight as in the Hake, and articul- 
ating in distinct articular cavities with the bodies of 
fish, described .and figured by Bonaparte as having confluent vertical fins, is 
characters mentioned above to the family Macruridce , if it does not indeed 
Gadoid fish with distinct caudal fin. 
genera with about 90 species Gunther’s subfamily Brotulina of the family Ophidiidce 
New Zealand, the Philippine Islands, and China, as well as from the depths of the Gulf 
