156 



DEEP-SEA FISHES OF THE ATLANTIC BASIN. 



The vent is placed a little fartlier back than in the typical species of the genns; the 

 length of the tail, compared to the total length, is iu that more than ten-elevenths and 

 only seven-uiuths in tlie individual here described. The skin being for the greater part re- 

 moved, together with a portion of the fins, some important characters are wanting. I find 

 no trace of the dorsal, excejit an incomplete ray, which is a little behind the anus; the anal 

 commences immediately behind this last. It appears to have been higher than the dorsal. 

 The base, moreover, of the scapular bone, wliicli supports the pectorals, alone enables us to 

 determine the location of these tins behind the branchial aperture. 



Measurements {given bij M. I'aillant). 



Length nf body — 

 Height iif body . . . 

 Thickness of body 

 Length of head . . . 



Tengthof tail 



Length of snout . . 

 Diameter of eye .. 

 Interorbital spare 



Millinteters. Hundredths. 



We find the i>rincipal character given to tliis species by Dr. Vaillant to be the 

 insertion of the anus at a distance from the pectorals double that whicli separates the 

 pectorals from the eye. As for the proportional elongation of the body, which is greater 

 in the Nemichthys scolopacexs, Ivichardson, than in yemirhthys infaiis, Giinther, in our exam- 

 ple the dift'erence is less marked. 



Serriromer Kichardii is represented as having tht; eye one twenty-fifth of the length of 

 the head; jn <S'. Beanil the eye is much larger, forming more than one-twentieth of the 

 length of the head. In S. Bichardii the origin of tlie dorsal fin, if correctly represented, 

 is distant from the gill-opening a space nearly ('((ual to the length of the liead, while in »S'. 

 Beami its distance from this point equals tlie length of the head. The gape of the mouth 

 also in S. Richardii is apparently much wider than in S. Beanii, tlie angle of the mouth 

 being well behind the vertical through the eye in >S'. Richardi and below the posterior mar • 

 gin of the eye in S. Beanii. 



Serrivomer Richardii was taken at station 131 of the Talisman^ off the Azores, at a 

 depth of 2,995 meters. 



GAVIALICEPS, Wood-Mason. 

 Gavialiceps, Woud-Mason, with Alcock, Ann. and Miig. Nat. Hist., 1889, 460. 



Body elongate, compressed, with long, lash-like tail. Head depressed, and snout a spat- 

 ulate or needle-like beak. Teeth small, sharp, in a double row in each jaw. Vomerine 

 teeth larger. Gill openings separate but reaching nearly to middle line of abdomen. Vent 

 somewhat remote from throat. No pectorals. 



Two species are kno\vn from the Bay of Bengal, viz: G. tamiola, Wood-Mason, 265 fath- 

 omn, and G. microps, Alcock, 1,045 fathoms. 



Order LYOMERI. 



Lyomeri, Gill and Ryder, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vi, 1883, 263. 



Fishes with five or six branchial arches (none modified as branchiostegal or pharyngeal) 

 far behind the skull; an imperfectly ossified cranium deficient especially in nasal and vom 

 eriue elements articulating with the first vertebra by a basioccipital condyle alone; only 

 two cephalic arches, both freely movable, (1) an anterior dentigerous one, and (2) the sus- 

 pensorial, consisting of the hyomandibular and quadrate bones, without opercular elements; 

 the scapular arch, imperfect (limited to a single cartilaginous plate), remote from the skull, 

 and with separately ossified, but imperfect vertebne. {Gill.) 



