MaLACOPTEKOUS ABUOillNALS.- 
-FISHES.- 
-Cypkinoius. 
153 
Family XIX. 
LUCIOIDS {Esocidce). 
19. 
Plate 4, fii 
These are scaly abdominal Malacopteres having no 
adipose fin, but possessing covered glandular pseudo- 
branchiae on the inside of the gill-cover, and also diffuse 
vascular ramifications on the inner side of the skin, 
which are peculiar to the family. It consists of a 
single genus {Esox), the type of form being the well- 
known Common Pike or Luce. The orifice of the mouth 
is formed above in the middle by the premaxillaries, and 
on the sides by the maxillaries ; these bones with the 
vomer and palatines being, as well as the pharyngeals, 
set with strong card-like teeth, and being, moreover, 
very movable on each other. The stomach is siphonal, 
there are no pancreatic caeca, and the swim-bladder is 
simple. The Pike bears a variety of names in Great 
Britain : as Pickerel, Jack, and Luce in England; Gedd 
in Scotland ; and Penhwyad in Wales. Individuals 
weighing sixty-nine pounds have been taken in Loch 
Lomond and Lough Neagh. The North American 
lakes contain a variety of species, some of them attain- 
ing a large size. ' 
Family XX. — CYPRINODONTS {Cyprinodontidca). 
Plate 4, fig. 18. 
These are small fishes that exist abundantly in the 
warmer temperate districts of both hemispheres, and 
were originally described as tooth-bearing Carps. They 
resemble the Cyprinoids in habit, but have slender 
teeth on the jaws, and want the large under pharyngeal 
teeth, as well as the opposing basi-occipital tubercles; 
their upper and under pharyngeal teeth being slenderly 
card-like. No bone corpuscles were detected by Kbl- 
liker in their skeletons. The maxillaries are like those 
of the Cyprinoids, and the protractile, dentiferous pre- 
maxillaries border the upper half of the mouth. The 
simple swim-bladder is not connected with a chain of 
acoustic ossicles ; there are no pseiidobranchim and no 
pancreatic caeca. The stomach is siphonal, and the 
branchiostegals are more than three, being usually five 
or six. Some members of the family are viviparous. 
The genera are — Belonesus (Kaup) ; Pcecilia ,• MoUnesia ; 
Xiphophorus (Heckel) ; Cyprinodon ; Funduhis ; Hydrarnyra ; 
Gambusia; Gimrdinus ; Limia (Mem. sobre la Hist. Nat. de 
Cuba, par Poey) ; Grundulus ; Orestias; a.nd Anableps. 
Some Cyprinodons inhabit very isolated pieces of 
water, such as wells in the oases of the African deserts. 
Artesian wells in Algeria, and the hot-springs of Canea 
in Ceylon. 
Family XXI.— CYPRINOIDS.— Plate 4, fig. 20. 
This family may be characterized as an assemblage 
of Malacopteres having single dorsals, ventrals on the 
abdomen, and bodies covered with cycloid scales that 
do not extend over the head and face : one or two 
genera only are scaleless. The orifice of the mouth is 
Fig. 40. 
Sublime Chondrostome or Tsungyu of China. 
small and toothless, and is bordered above by the pre- 
maxillaries only, the maxillaries l 3 dng behind them. 
Teeth exist on the inferior pharyngeals alone, and they 
are incorporated with the bones rising from them in 
one or more rows, to oppose by their ci’owns or cusps 
a cartilaginous or bony tubercle which is imbedded in 
the basi-occipital. The palate is soft, pulpy, granular, 
VoL. II. 76 
and sensitive ; the branchiostegals are three only ; and 
the biserial gills four. Seated deeply beneath the lining 
of the gill-cover there are vaso-ganglionic pseudo- 
branchiffi. The swim-bladder is divided by one or 
more narrow necks into successive chambers, the fore- 
most of which is encased in a thick, soft, fibrous capsule, 
and is connected with the acoustic organs by chains of 
