^'ov 9 1901 THE ANNALS AGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. [SEVENTH SERIES.] No. 46. OCTOBER 1901. XXXVI. — Notes 071 the Classification of Teleostean Fishes, — • I. On the Trachinidfe and their Allies. By G-. A. Bou-LENGER, F.R.S. In bis remarks on the Trachinoid Fishes, in 1861 *, Dr. Giinther explained that this family had been established by him " for those Acanthopterygian Fishes which have the spinous portion of their dorsal tin much less developed and siiorter than the soft, the anal fin similarly developed to the soft dorsal, and the ventrals composed of one spine and five rays. Their gill-openings are wide and the caudal portion o£ their vertebral column is formed by many more vertebrae than the abdominal" +. " Such," he added, " are the posi-tive characters by which they may be easily distinguished from the Scieenidge^ Carangidse, Blenniidse, Gobiidte, Tricho-notidge, &c. -, whilst tjie negative character, that of the absence of an infraorbital bone joined to the praeoperculum, distin-guishes them from the Cottidse. Other negative characters, as, for instance, the absence of fiidets behind the dorsal and anal, the entire absence or the small number of pyloric ap-pendages, separate them from some of the Scomberoid genera, * Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. (3) vii. 1861, p. So. t This latter character is incorrect so far as Uranoscopus and (Jhcen-ichthys {Chmnpsocephalus) are concerned. Ann. tf; Mag. A\ Hist. Ser. 7. Vol. viii. 19
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