Parker. — On a Specimen o/Eegalecus. 23 



of the demi-vertebra, but the differences between the two make 

 me disposed to doubt it. As to the form of the tail itself, it is 

 truncated obliquely, not bluntly-pointed with a ventral ernargi- 

 nation, as in my first specimen and in von Haast's. 



All the specimens examined by Collett had the tail broken in 

 a very similar way, the last vertebra showing a fresh-fractured 

 surface. Collett considers that the missing piece of the tail is 

 usually of small size, his conclusion being founded upon the 

 fairly constant position of the anus, which is, as a rule, a little 

 cephalad of the middle of the body. He states that the usual 

 proportion is for the pre-anal region, or head and trunk, to be 

 jAjths, the post-anal portion, or tail, x^ths of the total length ; 

 or, in other words, that the proportion between the length of 

 the pre-anal region and the total length is 1 : 2-5. It will be seen 

 that, in this respect, the resemblance between the Northern and 

 Southern Regaled is very close. 



Liitken considers that the end of the tail, with the tail-fin, 

 is lost at an early age, and that regeneration then takes place, 

 producing an additional piece of varying length. In this way 

 he accounts for the great length (18 feet, or 564 centim.) and 

 unusual number (406) of fin-rays of Lindroth's Hitteren speci- 

 men (11. grillii). He also remarks upon the fact that the 

 examples recorded from the Mediterranean have all had 

 uninjured tails, with small tail-fins, as shown in Cuvier's figure 

 of R. gladius (2). 



(c.) Colour and markings. — The general colour was, as in 

 former specimens, that of pure frosted silver. The irregular 

 sub-vertical black stripes and spots in the anterior half of the 

 body were also of the usual character, but more distinct than in 

 the Moeraki specimen when quite fresh (see 7, p. 293). But in 

 addition to these the whole body was covered with oval or cir- 

 cular dull grey spots, formed of aggregations of chromatophores, 

 covered and thus toned down by a thin silvery coating. These 

 spots were from 1*5 to 05 inch (4 — 1*5 cm.) in diameter : those 

 along a line equidistant from dorsal and ventral edges were 

 longitudinally oval, the rest circular ; each was slightly lighter 

 in tint in the centre than at the circumference. Von Haast 

 mentions them as " dark rings " (3, p. 248), but there is no in- 

 dication of them in his figure. Their appearance was precisely 

 that shown in Cuvier's figure of R. gladius (2, PI. 69), in which, 

 however, the anterior black bars are absent. A thoroughly good 

 notion of the appearance of the present specimen would be 

 obtained by painting on the anterior half of Cuvier's figure the 

 black bands shown in Hancock and Embleton's drawing of R. 

 banksii (4), or in von Haast's of R. pacijicus (3). The distinc- 

 tion in the fresh fish between the very obscure spots, hardly 

 visible in certain lights, and the intensely black bands on the 

 front half of the body was very striking. 



