117 



Scales with 13 to 18 short series of acute conical spinelets, the last spinelet 

 of the middle series greatly enlarged above the others. 



Four rows of scales between the last ray of the first dorsal fin and the 

 lateral line. 



2nd dorsal spine almost as long as the head. 



Outer ventral ray as long as the head behind the middle of the snout. 



Vent situated behind the tips of the mass of the ventral fins. Nine pyloric 

 ca?ca. 



One specimen just over 14 inches long. In the fresh state it emitted a 

 powerful and disagreeable musky odour. 



Bay of Bengal, 1310 fathoms. 



Regd. No. 12833. 



Subgenus Mystaconurus, Giinther. 



Mouth wide, in the ordinary lateral position, the infra-orbital ridge quite 

 indistinct and not marking off two distinct planes. Teeth in bands in both jaws. 

 Scales imbricate, spinigerous ; no series of enlarged dorsal scales. Dorsal spine 

 smooth. 



96. Macrurus (Mystaconurus) cavernosus, Goode and Bean. 



[an Macrurus (Mystacomirus) italicus, Giglioli.] 



Bathygadus cavernosus, Goode and Bean, Proo. U. S. Nat. Mas. VIII. 1885, p. 598 : Giinther, Challenger Deep 

 Sea Fishes, p. 156. 



Symenocephalus cavernosus, Goode and Bean, Oceanic Ichthyology, 1896, p. 408, fig. 341. 



Macrurus (Mystacomirus) heterolepis, Alcock, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., Nov. 1889, p. 396; Ang. 1891, p. 122: 

 Jonrn. As. Soc. Bengal, Vol. LXV. pt. 2, 1896, p. 309. Illustrations of the Zoology of the Investigator, 

 Fishes, pl. III. fig. 3. 



B. 7. D.r+ 10-11. A. circ. 100. P. 13-14. V. 10-11. 



Length of the head not quite a fifth of the total : greatest height of the body 

 not quite equal to the length of the head without the snout : tail lash-like. 



Snout about three-quarters as long as the eye, distinctly but not very 

 greatly overhanging the mouth, with median and lateral angles but not tubercles. 

 Nostrils as in all the previous species. 



Major diameter of the eye about 3- in the length of the head and about 

 four-fifths the width of the interorbital space. 



Mouth wide, the upper jaw, which is about half as long as the head, reach- 

 ing the level of the posterior border of the orbit. Villiform teeth in rather 

 narrow tapering bands in both the jaws : none of the teeth enlarged. 



