=THE Berycoid Fishes.=—We may place in a separate order a group of fishes, mostly spiny-rayed, which appeared earlier in geological time than any other of the spinous forms, and which in several ways represent the transition from the isospondylous fishes to those of the type of the mackerel and perch. In the berycoid fishes the ventral fins are always thoracic, the number of rays almost always greater than I, 5, and in all cases an orbitosphenoid bone is developed in connection with the septum between the orbits above. This bone is found in the _Isospondyli_ and other primitive fishes, but according to the investigations of Mr. E. C. Starks it is wanting in all percoid and scombroid forms, as well as in the _Haplomi_ and in all the higher fishes. This trait may therefore, among thoracic fishes, be held to define the section or suborder of _Berycoidei_. [Illustration: FIG. 198.—Skull of a Berycoid fish, _Beryx splendens_ Cuv. & Val., showing the orbitosphenoid (OS), characteristic of all Berycoid fishes. ] These fishes, most primitive of the thoracic types, were more abundant in Cretaceous and Eocene times than now. The possession of an increased number of soft rays in the ventral fins is archaic, although in one family, the _Monocentridæ_, the number is reduced to three. Most of the living _Berycoidei_ retain through life the archaic duct to the air-bladder characteristic of most abdominal or soft-rayed fishes. In some however, the duct is lost. For the first time in the fish series the number of twenty-four vertebræ appears. In most spiny-rayed fishes of the tropics, of whatever family, this number is retained. In every case spines are present in the dorsal fin, and in certain cases the development of the spinous dorsal surpasses that of the most extreme perch-like forms. In geological times the Berycoids preceded all other perch-like fishes. They are probably ancestral to all the latter. All the recent species, in spite of high specialization, retain some archaic characters. =The Alfonsinos: Berycidæ.=—The typical family, _Berycidæ_, is composed of fishes of rather deep water, bright scarlet or black in color, with the body short and compressed, the scales varying in the different genera. The single dorsal fin has a few spines in front, and there are no barbels. The suborbitals are not greatly developed. [Illustration: FIG. 199.—_Beryx splendens_ Lowe. Gulf Stream. ] The species of _Beryx_, called in Spanish _Alfonsino_, _Beryx elegans_ and _Beryx decadactylus_, are widely distributed at moderate depths, the same species being recorded from Portugal, Madeira, Cuba, the Gulf Stream, and Japan. The colors are very handsome, being scarlet with streaks of white or golden. These fishes reach the length of a foot or more and are valued as food where sufficiently common.