156 



DEEP-SEA FISHES OF THE ATLANTIC BASIN. 



The vent is placed a little farther back than in the typical species of the genus; the 

 length of the tail, compared to the total length, is in that more than ten-elevenths and 

 only seven-ninths in the individual here described. The skin being for the greater part re- 

 moved, together with a portion of the fius, some important characters are wanting. I find 

 no trace of the dorsal, except au incomplete ray, which is a little behind the anus; the anal 

 commences immediately behind this last. It appears to have been higher than the dorsal. 

 The base, moreover, of the scapular bone, which supports the pectorals, alone enables us to 

 determine the location of these fins behind the branchial aperture. 



Measurements {given hy M. Vaillant). 



M illimeters. Hundredths 



Length of bod; . . . 

 Height of body - - - 

 Thickness of body 

 Length of head . . - 

 Tengthof tail .... 

 Length of snout . . 

 Diametei of < 

 Interorl'ital spat e 



"We find the principal character given to this species by Dr. Vaillant to be the 

 insertion of the anus at a distance from the pectorals double that which separates the 

 pectorals from the eye. As for the proportional elongation of the body, which is greater 

 in the Nemichthys scolopaceus, Richardson, than in Xemichthys infant, Giinther, in our exam- 

 ple the difference is less marked. 



Serrivomer Richardii is represented as having the eye one twenty-fifth of the length of 

 the head; in 8. Beanii the eye is much larger, forming more than one-twentieth of the 

 length of the head. In 8. Richardii the origin of the dorsal fin, if correctly represented, 

 is distant from the gill-opening a space nearly equal to the length of the head, while in 8. 

 Beanii its distance from this point equals the length of the head. The gape of the mouth 

 also in S. Richardii is apparently much wider than in 8. Beanii, the angle of the mouth 

 being well behind the vertical through the eye in 8. Bichardi and below the posterior mar 

 gin of the eye in 8. Beanii. 



Serrivomer Richardii was taken at station 131 of the Talisman, off the Azores, at a 

 depth of 2,995 meters. 



GAVIALICEPS, Wood-Mason. 

 Garialiceps, Wood-Masox, with Alcock, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist.. 1SS9, 4(10. 



Body elongate, compressed, with long, lash like tail. Head depressed, and snout a spat- 

 ulate or needle-like beak. Teeth small, sharp, in a double row in each jaw. Vomerine 

 teeth larger. Gill openings separate but reaching nearly to middle line of abdomen. Vent 

 somewhat remote from throat. No pectorals. 



Two species are known from the Bay of Bengal, viz: G. twniola, Wood-Mason, 265 fath- 

 oms, and G. microps, Alcock, 1,045 fathoms. 



Order LYOMERI. 



Lyomeri, Gill and Ryder, Proe. 1". S. Nat. Mas., vi. 1883, 263. 



Fishes with five or six branchial arches (none modified as brancliiostegal or pharyngeal) 

 far behind the skull; an imperfectly ossified cranium deficient especially in nasal and vom- 

 erine elements articulating with the first vertebra by a basioccipital condyle alone; only 

 two cephalic arches, both freely movable, (1) an anterior dentigerous one, and (2) the sus- 

 pensorial, consisting of the hyomandibular and quadrate bones, without opercular elements; 

 the scapular arch, imperfect (limited to a single cartilaginous plate), remote from the skull, 

 and with separately ossified, but imperfect vertebras. (Gill.) 



