294 DEEP-SEA FISHES OF THE ATLANTIC BASIN. 



long. Caudal not forked. Pectoral liiis with broad, obliciuc bases, the lower rays rapidly 

 shortened, most of them branched. Ventrals jugular, close together, i, 5, the si)ine very 

 short, the innermost rays the longest. Air-bladder generally absent. Tyloric c«ca in mod- 

 erate number. 



URANOSCOPUS, Linnaeus. 



Uranoseopus, Linn.eus, Sj'steraa Natunt, ed. x, 1758, i, 250.— Cuvieu, Rf^siio Animal, eil. I, 1817, ii, 301. — 

 C'uviER and Valencienxes, Hist. Nat. Poiss., Iii. 285.— Guntuek, Cat. Fish. ]5rit. Mas., Ii, 226. 



Head large, broad, partly covered with bony plates; body somewhat cylindrical; cleft 

 of the mouth vertical; eye on the upper side of the head. Scales very small. Two dorsals, 

 the first with three to five spines; ventrals jugular; pectoral rays branched. Villilorm 

 teeth in the jaws, on the vomer, and palatine bones, without canines; generally a filament 

 below and before the tongue; opercular apparatus generally armed; cavity of the gills with 

 an opening above the operculum as well as posteriorly. Pseudobranchiie; six branchios- 

 tegals. Air-bladder none; pyloric appendages in moderate number. [Giinther.) 



Uvanoscoims crassiceps, Alcock, a species with an immense infiated head (Ann. and Mag. 

 Nat. Hist., 18!)0, ii, l-'Oo), was taken by the Inresfij/afor in the Bay of Bengal at station !)G, in 

 !)S-101i fathoms. One of the 2.5 specimens captured had in its stomach 7 specimens of Scop- 

 elus pteroUis. It is very possibly a resident beyond the hundred-fathom line. 



Family BATRACHID.^. 



Batraclmlw, Swainson, Nat. Hist. Fish, etc., 183!l, ii, 184, 282.— GO.vtiier, Cat. Fish. Brit. Mns., Ill, 166.— 

 Gill, Air. Fam. Fish., 1872, 5 (No. 41). — Joudan and Gilbert, Bull, xvi, U. S. Nat. JMus., 750. 

 Body depressed in front, compressed behind; head large, deiJressed, with unarmed 

 cheeks and with conspicuous muciferous channels. Teeth strong. Premaxillaries protrac- 

 tile. Gills 3, a .slit behind the last. Pseudobranchiiii none. Gill-openings lateral, with 

 membranes broadly united to isthmus. Gill-rakers present, moderate. Suborbital without 

 bony stay; post-temporal bone simple, undivided; scales small, cycloid, or wanting. Dor- 

 sal fins two, the first of 2 or 3 low, stout sx)ines; soft dorsal elongate and similar to anal, 

 but shorter. Ventrals jugular, rather large (i, 2 or i, 3). Pectorals very broad, the rays 

 branched; pyloric CiCoa none. Caudal distinct, rounded. 



Genus PORICHTHYS, Girard. 



Porichthys, GiRARD, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1854, 141. — GOntuer. oj). cit., 175. — Jordan and Gilbert, 

 op. oil., 751. 



Body cottiform. Head rather broad, depressed, the lower jaw projecting; moutli wide 

 with conical teeth iu jaws, and a canine on either side of vomer; operculum with single 

 spine. Skin naked, with several series of distinct mucous pores. Spinous dorsal with 2 

 minute spines. Pectoral broad. Branchiostegals vi. Air bladder in two lateral i>arts. 

 Vertebra- 11+31. (Jordan and Gilbert.) 



PORICHTHYS POROSISSIMUS, (Cuv. & VAL.),GiJNTHER. (Figure 267.) 



Batrachus i)orosissimus, Cuvier and Valenciennes, Hist. Nat. Poiss., xii, !501. 

 Forichihijfi porosiasimits, Gunther, op. cit., iii, 176. — Jordan and Gilbert, Ioc. cit. 



Depth of body one-sixth of its total length. Head narrowed anteriorly, its length 

 3g-4i in total length. Head with several rows of fringed pores; 2 concentric series on the 

 abdomen, the outer extending forwards between bases of ventrals. Ventrals reacliing 

 bases of pectorals. Pectorals reach to vertical from sixth anal ray. Caudal not half as 

 long as head. Color oUve-brown above, with coppery reflections, the belly brassy-yellow; 

 sides with irregular broad, vertical cross-blotches, most distinct in the young; dorsal gray- 

 ish with oblique dark bars; vertical fins sometimes margined with black; jjores of lateral 

 lines bead-like, shining silvery; a white space below eye, with a black crescent below it. 



Radial forninla: D. it, 37; A. .33; V. I, 2; P. IS. 



This form, well known on the western coasts of tropical America, occurs in deep water in 



