173 



there are a few inconspicuous and deciduous teeth on the prominent edges of the 

 palatines only. 



Gill-openings very wide, the gill-membranes being attached to the isthmus 

 only quite anteriorly ; gill-rakers conspicuous on all the branchial arches, and, to 

 the number of about twelve in the middle of the first arch, long and setaceous ; 

 pseudobranchise small. Head covered with a velvety scaleless skin ; body with 

 scales that are so deciduous as to have entirely disappeared, leaving only 

 imprints. 



The long anal fin begins an eye-length behind the middle of the body, 

 measured without the caudal, and the shorter dorsal arises in the vertical through 

 the sixth or seventh anal ray ; the caudal is completely divided down to its base 

 into two long feathery lobes. The small ventrals, which arise midway between 

 the base of the pectoral and the origin of the anal, reach rather more than half- 

 way to the latter point. 



Stomach siphonal ; a row of four stout pyloric caeca ; intestine slightly 

 coiled, with its terminal end enlarged and thick-walled. 



Colours : head and eyes jet-black ; body and fins greyish black. 



A mature male is nearly 7 inches long. 



Bay of Bengal, off Madras coast, 475 fathoms. 



Re^d. No. 13192. 



■'6'- 



Bathytroctes, Giinther. 



Bathytroctes, Giinther, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., 1878, Vol. II.. p. 249 ; and Challenger Deep Sea Fishes, p. 225 : 

 Goode and Bean, Oceanic Ichthyology, p. 40 : Jordan and Evermann, Fishes of N. Amer., p. 454. 



Talismania, Goode and Bean, Oceanic Ichthyology, p. 41 : Jordan and Evermann, Fishes of N. Amer., p. 455. 



Differs from Alepocephalus only in the following particulars : — 



The maxilla, as well as the premaxilla, has a series of small teeth. The 

 opercles and part of the cheeks are sometimes, but not commonly, scaly. There 

 are seven branchiostegals. The anal fin commonly begins below the posterior 

 part of the dorsal. 



Distribution : Atlantic ; Arabian and Andaman Seas ; "Western Pacific. 



139. Bathytroctes squamosus, Alcock. 



Bathytroctes squamosus, Alcock, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist , Oct. 1890, p. 304 : Illustrations of the Zoology of 

 the Investigator, Fishes, pl. V. fig. 1. 



B. 7. D. 17. A. 17. C. arc. 35. P. 10. V. 9. L. lat. circ. 50. L. tr. 15. 



Length of the head a little more than the greatest height of the body and a 

 little more than a fourth of the total. 



