264 THE VOYAGE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGER. 



Nemichthjs infans (PI. LXIII. fig. B). 



Nemichthys infam, Giinth., Ann. and Mag. Xat. Hist., 1878, vol ii. p. 2.5L 



Body much Ies.s elongate and eye much smaller than in Nemichthys scolopacea. 

 Vent twice or thrice as distant from the root of the pectorals as is the latter from the eye. 



Habitat. — Mid-Atlantic, Station 101 ; depth, 2500 fathoms. One specimen, 

 11 inches long. 



OflF Pernambuco, Station 121 ; depth, 500 fathoms. One specimen, 7\ inches long. 



Besides these two specimens the British Museum has received a third from the 

 Mona Channel in the West Indies, which was found attached to an old telegraph cable 

 that had been laid at the depth of 814 fathoms ; it is 14 inches long, but had a great 

 part of its body mutilated during life. This specimen, which is better preserved than 

 the two others, will be referred to as specimen C in the following description. 



The body, although compressed, is rather fleshy, in its anterior portion lower and 

 narrower than the head, l)ut becoming broader and wider behind, the terminal portion 

 tapering again, but retaining a thin muscular covering to the very end (fig. B'"). In 

 specimen C (which is figured) the body w^as mutilated during life at a short distance 

 behind the point where it attained its greatest depth, and the mutilated part is 

 surrounded by a rather broad fin, in which a number of branched fin-rays have been 

 developed. 



The hind part of the head is subquadrangular, nearly as deep as broad. Eye 

 without circular fold, of moderate size, its diameter being about one-third of its distance 

 from the pectoral fin, and about twice the width of the interorbital space. The snout 

 is produced into the same long slender bill as in Nemichthys scolopacea. The 

 extremities of the upper and lower jaws terminate in two small swollen knobs (fig. B") 

 in the two smaller specimens, which are not observable in specimen C. The asperities 

 with which the ])eak is armed in its entire length, are in the form of minute imbricate 

 scale-like denticles, the points of which are directed backwards (fig. B'). The cleft of 

 the mouth extends a little behind the eye. 



The gill-openings are nearly as wide as the orbit, obliquely directed towards the 

 median line of the belly and rather close together. In specimen C the vent is nearly 

 three times as distant from the pectoral fin as this latter is from the eye, but the 

 distance is comparatively less in the two smaller specimens. 



The dorsal fin commences immediately behind the pectoral, and is throughout 

 composed of extremely delicate rays ; of these only the anterior are distinctly connected 

 by membrane, all the others are free and probably non-erectile. The anal fin 

 commences immediately behind the vent, and is more developed than the dorsal, its 

 rays being stronger and longer ; only its anterior rays are delicate and rudimentary 



