— oe 
LAWYER. 997 
only; interclavicles developed. There are also several important peculiarities in the 
shoulder girdle and skull, which separate these fishes from the perch-like forms. The 
name hemi, half; bragchia, gills) alludes to the reduction in number of the branchihyals. 
ANALYSIS OF FAMILIES OF HEMIBRANCHII. 
a, Bones of head moderately produced; ventral fins of a stout spine and a rudimen- 
tary ray; dorsal fins preceded by free spines; body scaleless, naked, or mailed. 
GASTEROSTEIDZ, 
FAMILY XXVI. GASTEROSTEIDS!. 
THE STICKLEBACKS. 
Body elongate, somewhat compressed, tapering behind to a slender caudal peduncle ; 
head rather long, the anterior part not produced into a tube ; mouth moderate, the cleft 
Oblique, the lower jaw prominent; teeth sharp, even, in a narrow band in each jaw; 
no teeth on vomer or palatines; premaxillaries protractile; preorbital rather broad ; sub- 
orbital plate large, often covering the anterior part of the cheeks, connected with the 
preopercles; opercles unarmed; branchiostegals three; gill-membranes broadly united, 
free, or joined to the isthmus; gill-rakers moderate; no true scales, the skin naked or 
with bony plates; dorsal with its spines disconnected, two or more in number; anal 
similar to soft dorsal, armed with a single spine; ventral fins subabdominal, each con- 
sisting of a single sharp spine and a rudimentary soft ray; middle or sides of belly 
shielded by the innominate bones; pectorals short, placed at a considerable distance 
from the gill openings from which they are separated by a quadrate, naked area covered 
with shining skin; caudal fin narrow, usually lunate; air-bladder simple; a few pyloric 
coca; genera 5, the two mentioned are, however, scarcely worthy of separation from 
Gasterosteus. About twenty species are known, most of them of very wide distribution 
jn the rivers and bays of northern regions. They are all of small size, and are exceed - 
ingly active, pugnacious, and destructive. 
“Tt is scarcely to be conceived what damage these little fishes do, and how greatly 
detrimental they are to the increase of all the other fishes among which they live, for it 
is with the utmost industry, sagacity, and greediness that they seek out and destroy all 
the young fry that come their way.” 
The Sticklebacks build elaborate nests in the spawning season. These the male fish 
defends with much spirit. 
ANALYSIS OF GENERA OF GASTEROSTEIDA. 
a. Innominate bones joined together, forming a triangular or lanceolate bony piece 
on the middle line of the abdomen behind the ventral fins; gill-membranes 
posteriorly free from the isthmus. | 
b. Dorsal spines 4 to 6, in the same line when erected; no caudal keel. EUCALIA. 87 
bb. Dorsal spines 8 to 10, not in aright line when erected, but projecting altern- 
ately to the right and left; caudal keel present. . . . PYGOSTEUS. 88. 
GENUS 87. EUCALIA. Jordan. 
Gasterosteus sp., KIRTLAND, STORER, and others. 
Eucalia, JORDAN, Man. Vert., Ed. 1st, 1876, 248; Proc. Acad. Nat. Sc. Phila., 1877, 65. 
Type, Gasterosteus inconstans, Kirtland. 
Etymology, eu, well; kalia, nest. 
