200 
MALACOPTBRYGII. 
ORDER II. MALACOPTERYGII. 
{Soft-finned Fishes,) 
The skeleton in the members of this Order is, 
like that in the preceding, formed of bone. Their 
fins are, however, supported by fiexible, jointed, 
and branched rays. This,” says Mr. Swainson, 
^^is the chief typical character, and the excep- 
tions are very few. In some, as in the Siluridce, 
the first rays of the dorsal and pectoral fins are 
represented by bony spines, the sides of which 
are crenated, or toothed, like a saw. In the Flat- 
fishes {Pleuronectidce) the rays are semi-spinous ; 
and even among the most typical Families, the 
first two or three dorsal rays are rigid : yet all 
these deviations take not from the fact, that the 
whole of these fishes are known by the absence of 
spiny rays, placed after the first or second^ in any 
of their fins.”^ 
In addition to this character it may be observed 
that, with few exceptions, the gill-openings are 
unconfined, and the gills have the structure com- 
mon to the Acanthopterygii, of fringes resem- 
bling the teeth of a comb. 
The Soft-finned Fishes are, in general, inferior 
to the Spinous-finned in the degree of develop- 
ment of those essential characteristics which dis- 
tinguish a fish from other vertebrate animals : 
they are a step lower in the scale of organic per- 
^ Monocardian Animals, i. 226. 
