88 



Scales deciduous very large : [one left on the thorax of the Bingle " Investi- 

 gator " specimen measured quarter of an inch in its major diameter, the specimen 

 itself being just over 3 inches long.] 



The dorsal fin arises somewhat nearer to the tip of the snout than to the 

 base of the caudal, and behind the base of the ventral, which is below that of 

 the pectoral : the last dorsal ray is above the middle of the anal. Pectoral fin 

 long, reaching nearly to the end of the anal. 



Stomach very large : a few very large pyloric caeca. 



Colour black. 



A single specimen from the Bay of Bengal, off the Ganjam coast, 1310 

 fathoms. 



Regd. No. 12834. 



Distribution : East Indian Archipelago : Bay of Bengal : in deep water. 



Polymixia, Lowe. 



Polymixia, Lowe, Trans. Camb. Phil. Soc, VI. 1838, p. 198 : Gnnther, Cat. Fishes I. p. 16 (et synon.) : Goode 

 & Bean, Oceanic Ichthyology, p. 243 {ubi synon.) : Jordan & Evermann, Fishes of North America, I. p. 854. 



Body compressed, rather elongate. Eye large. Snout short. Mouth-cleft 

 very slightly oblique : the upper jaw overhanging the lower. Villiform teeth 

 in jaws, vomer, palatines, and pterygoids. 



Two barbels on the throat. 



Gill openings wide : only four branchiostegals : gill-cover unarmed, except 

 that the edge of the preoperculum is finely serrated : pseudobranchiae present. 



Scales moderate : ctenoid. One long dorsal fin, beginning with about five 

 spines. Ventrals with 6 or 7 rays. Caudal forked. Anal with 4 spines. 



Delicate pyloric appendages in moderate number. A thin-walled air-bladder 

 with more or less distinct vestiges of a pneumatic duct. 



22. Polymixia nobilis, Lowe. 



Polymixia nobilis, Lowe, Gunther Cat. Fishes, I. p. 17, and Challenger Deep Sea Fishes, p. 34, pi. i. fig. B : 

 ubi synon. (Nemobrama Webbii Val., Polymixia lowei and japonica Gthr., Dinemus venustus Poey) : Alcock, Ann. 

 Mag. Nat. Hist., Nov., 1889, p. 381, and July, 1891, p. 23 : Goode and Bean, Oceanic Ichthyology, p. 243, fig. 241 : 

 Jordan and Evermann, Fishes of North America, I. pp. 854, 855 (foot-note). 



B. 4. D. V. 30-38. A. III-IV. 14-18. V. I. 6-7. Sc. circ. 50. L. lat. circ. 36. 



Height of the body about equal to the length of the head, which is a little 

 over one-third the total without the caudal. 



All parts of the head, except the snout, the suborbital space, the upper 

 jaw, the middle line of the chin, and the border of the angle of the pre-oper- 

 culum, are scaly. 



