516 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
Family CV. SOLEID/E.- The Soles. 
Body oblong or elongate, usually scaly; mouth very small, much twisted toward the eyed side; 
the teeth in villiform bands, very small or obsolete; eyes small, close together, with or without a bony 
ridge between them; edge of preopercle adnate, concealed by the skin and scales; gill openings nar- 
row, the gill membranes adnate to the shoulder girdle above; pectoral tins small or wanting; ventral 
(ins small, one or both sometimes wanting. Small fishes living on sandy bottoms, similar to the Pleu- 
ronectidie in structure, but much degraded, the fins and teeth having lost many of their distinctive 
qualities; the vertebra usually in increased numbers. Species numerous in the warm seas, and those 
of sufficient size valued as food. 
Genus 263. SYMPHURUS Rafinesque. Tongue-Fishes. 
Body elongate, more or less lanceolate in outline, with the eyes and color on the left side; eyes 
small, very close together, with no distinct interorbital ridge between them; mouth small, twisted 
toward the blind side; teeth little developed, in villiform bands; edge of preopercle covered by the 
scales; gill-openings narrow, the gill-membranes adnate to the shoulder-girdle above, joined together 
and free from the isthmus below; pectoral fins wanting (in the adult); vertical fins more or less con- 
tinent; scales ctenoid; lateral line wanting; ventral fin of eyed side only present, free from the anal; 
head without fringes. 
The 2 Hawaiian species are fully described in Section II. 
Symphurus Rafinesque, Indice d’lttiologia Siciliana, 52, 1810 ( nigrcsccns ). 
Jiibronia Cocco.Alcuni Pesei del mare de Messina, 15, 1844 ( ligulata ; larval form). 
Plagusia Cuvier, Regne Animal, Ed. 2, II, S44, 1829 (based on Plagusia of Brown) ; name preoccupied in Crustaceans, 
Latreille, 1800. 
Plagiusa Bonaparte, Catalogo Metodico, 51, 1846 ( lactea ); substitute for Plagusia preoccupied. 
Aplionstia Kaup, Arcliiv fur Naturgesch. 1858, 106 ( ornata ). 
Glossichthys Gill, Cat. Fish. E. Coast N. A., 51, 1861 (plagiusa) . 
Amnioplcarops Gunther, Cat., IV, 490, 1862 ( lacteus=nigrcscens ). 
Bascanius Schiodte, Naturhist. Tydsskr., V, 269, 1867 ( tseclifer ; larval form). 
Acedia Jordan in Jordan & Goss, Review Flounders and Soles, 321, 1889 (nebulosus). 
Order M. PEDICULATI. 
Carpal bones notably elongate, forming a kind of arm (pseudobrachium) which supports the broad 
pectoral. Gill-opening reduced to a large or small foramen situated in or near the axil, more or less 
posterior to the pectorals. Ventral fins jugular if present; anterior dorsal reduced to a few tentacle- 
like, isolated spines; soft dorsal and anal short; no scales. First vertebra united to cranium by a 
suture; epiotics united behind supraoccipital ; elongate basal pectoral radii (actinosts), reduced in 
number; no interclavicles; post-temporal broad, flat, simple; upper pharyngeals 2, similar, spatulate, 
with anterior stem and transverse blade; basis of cranium simple, no air-duct to the swim-bladder. 
Marine fishes, chiefly of the Tropics and the oceanic abysses. The group is an offshoot from the 
Acanthopteri, its chief modification being in the elongation of the actinosts and in the position of the 
gill-opening. The Batrachoididx are perhaps its nearest relatives. 
a. Gill-openings in or behind the lower axil of the pectoral; mouth large, terminal. 
b. Pseudobranchiee present; pseudobrachia with 2 actinosts; head broad, depressed, the enormous mouth with very 
strong teeth; ventrals present ^ Lnphiidse, p. 516 
bb. Pseudobranch i;e none; pseudobrachia with 3 actinosts. 
c. Ventrals present; arm angulate, the pseudobrachia elongate Antennariida ?, p. 517 
cc. Ventrals wanting, arm not angulate, the pseudobrachia moderate Ceratiidae , p. 523 
a a. Gill-openings in or behind the upper axil of the pectoral; mouth small, usually inferior Ogcoceplialidse, p. 523 
Family CVI. LOPHIIDj®. — T he Anglers. 
Head wide, depressed, very large; body contracted, conical, tapering rapidly backward from the 
shoulders; mouth exceedingly large, terminal, opening into an enormous stomach; upper jaw pro- 
tractile; maxillary without supplementary bone; lower jaw projecting; both jaws with very strong, 
unequal, cardiform teeth, some of the teeth canine-like, most of them depressible; vomer and palatines 
