DISCUSSION ()F SPECIES AND THEIB DISTRIBUTION. 117 



Gill has also described a species from the Pacific coast of North America, under the 

 name of Gaulopus borealis (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sri., Philad., 1862, p. L28); and Beau another, 

 Alepisaurus cesculapius (Proc. U. S. Hat. Mus., 1883, .'501); and there is also die doubtful 

 Caulopus serra of Gill from .Monterey, California. 



We are not thoroughly satisfied that more than one species has been found in the 

 Atlantic. 



KEY TO THE GENERA AND SPECIES. 



Ventral rays 7-10 Alepisai rus 



Paired fins moderate. (Ventrals about one-half length of head.) Ventral rays 9-10. 



ALEPISAURUS I I ros 



Paired fins short. ( Ventrals about one-third lengtb of head. I Bodj shorter posteriorly. Ventral rays?. 



Alepisaurus .kmtui'ii rs, Bean (from abyss off [Jnala 



Ventral rays 13 (Mi 0P1 8 



Paired fins moderate. (Ventrals about one-half length of load.) Dorsal much elevated. 



CA1 LOPUS alttvelis 



Paired fins elongate. ("Ventrals as long as head".) Dorsal fin short ; 34 rays. 



Caulopus borealis 



ALEPISAURUS FEROX, Lowe. (Figure 142.) 



Alepisaurus ferox, Lowe. Proe. Zool. Soc. Loudon, 1833, 107. — Trans. Zool. Sue. London, i, 121, pi. xix; 395, 



pi. lix. — GOnther, Wiegmann's Archiv., 1880, 121. 

 Alepidosaurus ferox, GOnther, Cat. Fish. Brit. Mus., v, 421. 

 Plagyodus ferox, GCnther, Challenger Report, xxn, 203. — Jordan, /<»■. cit. 

 Alepisaurus azureus, Cuvier and Valenciennes, Hist. Nat. Poiss., xxn, 1839, 530. 



Length of the head is less than twice the height of the body, aud rather less than one- 

 si sth of the total. Eye median, contained."* to 6 times in length of head, as wide as the inter- 

 orbital space. Dorsal fin much elevated; pectorals elongated, equal in length to the head, 

 hut reaching nearly two-thirds of the distance to the insertions of the ventrals; first rays of 

 dorsal, pectoral, and ventral serrated. 



Radial formula: D.38-44; A. 14-17; P.14-15; V. 0-10. 



A. ferox was first described from specimens obtained by Lowe in the deep waters near 

 Madeira. In addition to Lowe's types, and a few other specimens obtained by the Madeira 

 fishermen upon tue deep-sea lines, the species appears not to have been captured, except in 

 the Western Atlantic. 



From the Western Atlantic specimens have been sent to the National Museum. Of 

 three of these the locality is not known, but they were obtained in the New York markets 

 by Mr. E. G. Blackford, and forwarded to Washington by him. The Albatross obtained 

 one at the surface (Cat. No. 25202 U. S. N. M.) in Uo 30' X. Lat., 57° 13' W. Long., and 

 another (Oat, 22292 (J. S. N. M.) at a depth of 105 fathoms in 42° 4.V K Lat., 63° W. Long. 

 The Gloucester fishermen obtained two on Le Have Lank, one (No. 24245) at 275 fathoms, 

 another (No. L'4244) at 120 fathoms; also, two others (Nos. 24296 ami L'HiOT) in 200 fathoms 

 at Lat. 42° 37' K, Lon. 62° 55' W., and another (No. 24243) in Lat. 43° 46' IS., Lon. 61° 

 is' w. in 200 fathoms. A skull of Alepisaurus, from Van Diemen's Land, preserved in the 

 British Museum, has been provisionally identified by Gunther with those species, but it- 

 seems scarcely safe to regard A. ferox as an inhabitant of the Australian seas until more 

 material has been obtained for study. 



A closely allied species, with somewhat shorter paired tins, has been described by Dr. 

 Bean under the name of A. ceseulapius. The fish was speared at Unalaska in October. L880, 

 just as it was swimming upon the beach. It undoubtedly had come to I lie surface from the 

 deep adjacent to Captains Harbor, where it was captured. The hundred-fathom line 

 at this point approaches rather close to the shore. This individual had in its stomach twenty- 

 one individuals of the spiny lumpfish. It was Dr. Bean's opinion that it had been driven 

 ashore by the torture of a parasitic worm found in its flesh. The "Wolf Fish", as it is 

 called in this region, frequently is stranded on the beach at lliuliuk. 



