70 RECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEITM. 



moderate, slightly oblique, the maxilla, which is slender and 

 scarcely widened at the tip, concealed beneath the preoi'bital, 

 and extending to beyond the vertical from the front margin of 

 the pupil. Upper profile of head slightly convex, the snout 

 abruptly descending. Preopercle with radiating stri;e, each of 

 which terminates in a flexible point : opercle and subopercle 

 crossed by similar strite. Body oblong and somewhat compressed. 

 Teeth in the jaws minute, sharp, closely and evenly set. The 

 dorsal fin commences nearly midway between the vent and the 

 origin of the ventrals ; all the rays are soft and, with the excep- 

 tion of the first, branched ; the anterior rays very low, the fin 

 gradually rising posteriorly, the highest rays 3-00 in the length 

 of the head : the anal fin commences slightly in front of the 

 middle of the body, and ends just in front of the last dorsal ray : 

 ventral short and small, inserted a little behind the pectorals, 

 with one of the rays slightly filamentous, its length 3-00 in that 

 of the head : pectorals rounded, small, not so long as the head : 

 caudal broad and fan-shaped, the peduncle slender. Scales small, 

 soft, and smooth, in one or two series on the preorbital.* None 

 of the fin rays armed with spinules. Lateral line nearly straight, 

 smooth. Airbladder wanting. 



Colors. — Brown, paler below, somewhat punctulated. 



Habitat. — Deep water off" the coast of California. 



Length seven inches and a half. 



SCHEDOPHILUS BERTHELOTI. 



Criu8\ lerthelotii, Valenc. in Webb k, Berthel. lies Canar. Poiss. 

 p. 45, pi. ix. f. 1, 1836. 



Schedophilus lerthelotii, Gnth. Catal. Fish. ii. p. 412, 1860. 



Schedophilm hotteri (Heck.) Steindachn. SB. Ak. Wien, 1868, 

 Ivii. p. 379, pi. ii. f. 2. 



D. 36-38. A. 23-25. V. 1/5. P. 21. Ccec. pyl. 6. 



Length of head I 3-75, height of body 3 00 in the total length. 

 Eye large, its diameter 2-60 in the length of the head : snout short, 

 but little more than half the diameter of the eye : interorbital space 

 flat, 1-33 in the same. The maxilla extends to beneath the middle 

 of the orbit. Snout very strongly convex; occiput convex; a shallow 

 concave interspace. Preopercular teeth numerous, rather short, 



*,Other scales on the head, if any, lost on the typical example. 



t From KpLO'i, a ram. 



X Calculated from Dr. Steindachner's description of a young example. 

 I have not been able to consult Messrs. Webb & Berthelot's work, while 

 Dr. Giinther's notice, owing probably to the only specimen available to 

 him being a half -grown skin, is valueless for comparison. 



