4 DISCOVERY REPORTS 



access to the collection of fishes. Dr N. A. Mackintosh has extended helpful criticism and suggestions. 

 Dr Ethelwynn Trewavas has kindly read the manuscript, and I owe especial thanks to her and to 

 Mr N. B. Marshall for much advice. 



DESCRIPTION OF AN ANTARCTIC SPECIMEN 

 In identifying the new specimen as Ceratias holbolli, and so extending the range of this species into 

 Antarctic seas, I have been assisted by access to the individual* (67 cm. standard length) from which 

 Regan (1925a) first described dwarfed males. This has supplemented comparisons with descriptions 



in the literature. 



EXTERNAL CHARACTERS 

 Standard length 43-0 cm. 



Weight 3580 g. 

 The general appearance of the fish (PI. I) closely resembles a photograph (Bertelsen, 1943) of the 

 specimen 65 cm. long, which has been briefly described by Saemundsson (1939). There were no 

 dwarfed males attached to the new specimen. 



The rays of the dorsal and caudal fins were more or less broken and lacked the distal portions of their 

 integuments, as also did the exserted part of the basal bone of the lure.f Otherwise the specimen was 



intact. 



Measurements of the fish expressed as percentages of the standard length are included in Table 1, 

 together with those of Kroyer's type and Regan's 1925 specimen. In general they show good agreement, 

 but the matter of proportions will be pursued later. 



The spines which beset the skin are conical and with broad bases as described by Kroyer (1844) and 

 Regan & Trewavas (1932). The largest are 0-3 cm. high and 0-4 cm. across the base. They are evenly 

 distributed over the body surface, except for a naked area in front of the pectoral fin, extending from 

 a point slightly above the fin forwards and downwards over the region of the gill-cover (PI. I). A few 

 small spines are scattered just below the lower jaw. In Regan's example the spines are more numerous, 

 more closely set, and more extensively distributed over the body, but they are sparser on that part of the 

 head which in the new specimen is naked. The largest spines are o-6 cm. high and 0-9 cm. broad, and 

 therefore not relatively larger than those in the new and smaller specimen. 



The colour^ in the head region of the new specimen is greyish black. More posteriorly, in the upper 

 parts of the body and flanks of the tail, this greyish black colour is mottled with irregular dirty white 

 patches. The belly is a dirty grey tinged with black. There is less pigment on the right side of the body 

 than on the left, but this difference, and the mottled appearance, may be attributed to digestive action. 

 The smooth or naked region of the head was steel blue when fresh, and the outlines of the branchio- 

 stegal rays beneath could be seen. The sparsely spinal area below the lower jaw is black. Four black 

 streaks extend slantwise across the smooth area. The inside of the mouth, including the large tongue, 

 is black, and so is the anterior border of the opercular opening. The body colour of Kroyer's type and 

 Regan's specimen was blackish. 



The mouth of the new specimen has a large gape of 130 , and the upper jaw (as in Regan's specimen) 

 is rotated back 25 past the vertical. Vomerine and palatine teeth are absent— a character shared by all 

 the Ceratioidea (Lutken, 1878). The teeth are confined to the dentary and premaxillary and are directed 



* B.M. (N.H.) 1924. 12. 29.1. 



f This damage can at least be partly attributed to incipient digestion, although the fish was removed from the Sperm whale's 

 first stomach which has no digestive lining and acts as a storage organ. Food in this stomach quite soon begins to be attacked 

 by gastric juice, which presumably has been regurgitated from the second stomach during the convulsion following harpooning, 

 or has leaked over after death. 



% All observations on the colour are transcribed from notes made on the fresh specimen. 



