207 



Andaman Sea, 265 fathoms ; Bay of Bengal, 240, 270, 281 to 258 and 260 

 fathoms. 



Regd. Nos. 13111-13113, 12467, 13098-13105, 13202-13206. 



Nettenchelys, Alcock. 



Nettenchelys, Alcock, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., Aug. 1898, p. 149. 



Body stout; tail longer than the combined head and trunk. Muciferous 

 cavities of head well developed ; snout much produced, broad, depressed ; mouth- 

 cleft very wide, broad bands of small conical teeth in jaws and vomer ; tongue 

 not free ; a tubular nostril situated dorsally near the tip of the snout on either 

 side. Gill-openings of moderate size, well separated ; four gills with wide clefts. 

 No scales ; the lateral line, which consists of a single row of pores, is very 

 indistinct in the greater part of its extent. Dorsal and anal fins well developed, 

 confluent with the broad caudal only in the basal half of the latter. No pectoral 

 fins. An air-bladder ; no pyloric appendages. 



167. Nettenchelys Taylori, Alcock. 



Nettenchelys Taylori, Alcock, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., Aug. 1898, p. 150: Illustrations of the Zoology of the 

 Investigator, Fishes, pl. XXV. fig. 5. 



Head, measured to gill-opening, one-seventh the total, and half as long as 

 the distance between the gill-openings and the vent ; the tail is thus a good deal 

 more than half the total. Snout a third the length of the head (measured to the 

 gill-opening), elongate, broad, depressed, bill-like, the upper jaw overlapping the 

 lower. There is a series of large pores along the upper lip, as also along each 

 side of the lower jaw and along the top of the snout on either side, but the only 

 undoubted nostrils are a largish tubular pair at the tip of the snout. Byes sub- 

 cutaneous, not much more than a fourth the length of the snout and not much 

 more than half a diameter apart. 



The mouth-cleft reaches behind the eye ; the dental surface of both jaws is 

 broad and is crowded with row upon row of close-set conical teeth, which are 

 little more than villiform, though the innermost row in either jaw is slightly 

 enlarged. On the vomer is a long broad convex band of similar teeth — about 

 six longitudinal rows of them. The tongue is large and thick and tapers to a 

 point ; it is firmly adherent to the floor of the mouth. 



Gill-openings of moderate size, lateral, well separated. 



No scales. Although the mucous system and pores of the head are so well 

 developed, those of the lateral line, which are in a single row, very soon become 

 distant, small, and inconspicuous, though they are continued to the end of the tail. 



Though the tail tapers it does not end in a point, but in a broad caudal fin, 

 the outer rays of which are confluent only in their basal half with the dorsal and 



