208 



PISCES. 



Alepocephalus, Risso. 



The same general form, but the head only deprived of scales, the 

 body being covered with broad ones; the mouth is small, and the 

 teeth extremely delicate and crowded; very large eyes, and eight 

 branchial rays. 



Al. rostratus, Risso, Ed., II, f. 27 and Mem. Acad. Turin, 

 XXV, pi. X, f. 24. The only species known; it is taken in the 

 depths of the Mediterranean. 



Microstoma, Cuv. 



A very short snout; the lower jaw projecting beyond the upper 

 one, and furnished, as well as the small intermaxillaries, with very 

 minute teeth; three broad and flat rays in the branchis; the eye 

 large, the body elongated, and the lateral line covered with a row 

 of stout scales; a single dorsal a short distance behind the ventrals; 

 intestines like those of a Pike. 



But a single species is known, the Serpe microstome, Risso, p. 

 356. It inhabits the Mediterranean. 



Stomias, Cuv. 



The snout extremely short, and the mouth cleft almost to the gills; 

 the opercula reduced to little membranous laminse, and the maxilla- 

 ries fixed to the cheek. The intermaxillary, palatine, and mandi- 

 bulary bones armed with a few long and hooked teeth; similar ones 

 on the tongue. The body is elongated; the ventrals very far back, 

 and the dorsal opposite to the anal on the posterior extremity of the 

 body. 



Two species of these singular fishes were discovered by 

 Risso in the Mediterranean; they are black, and ornamented 

 along the belly with several rows of silvery points. One of them, 

 Usox boa, Risso, Ed. I, pi. x, f. 34, has no cirri; the other, Sto- 

 mias barbatus, is furnished with a very long and thick one which 

 is attached to the symphysis of the lower jaw. 



Chauliodus, Schn. 



These fishes, as well as can be ascertained from a figure, Catesb.,, 

 Supp. pi. ix, and Schn. pi. 85, are nearly allied to Stomias in their 

 head and jaws. Two teeth in each jaw cross the opposite one when 

 the mouth is shut. The dorsal corresponds to the interval between 

 the pectorals and ventrals, which are not placed so far back as those 

 of a Stomias; the first ray of this dorsal is extended into a filament. 

 C. Sloani, Schn., pi. 85; Esox stomias, Sh., V, part I, pi. iii, 

 is the only species known, and has never been taken except at 



