810 CONTRIBUTIONS TO NORTH AMERICAN ICHTHYOLOGY IV. 
446. — CIIIASMODON Johnson. 
(Johnson, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. 1883, 403: typo Chiasmodon niger Johnson.) 
Body elongate, compressed, and tapering posteriorly, naked ; belly 
pendent, its walls membranaceous, capable of great dilation. Mouth 
very large; lower jaw longer than uiiper, without barbel; both jaws 
with two series of large, pointed teeth, some of the anterior being very 
large and movable; vomerine teeth none; palatines with teeth similar 
to those in the jaws. Gills 4. No j)seudobranchiae. Gdl-openings 
very wide, the membranes joined to the isthmus for a short distance. 
Dorsal fins two; anal single; ventrals inserted below pectorals, each of 
five soft rays. Tail not isocercal, truncate at base of caudal. Caudal 
forked, free from dorsal and anal. Singular fishes of the deep sea, re- 
markable for their ability to swallow fishes of many times their own 
size by means of the great distensibility of the walls of the body. The 
position of this genus in the family Gadidce is doubtful, {yidoim^ a mark 
of the form of the letter X; tooth; the two anterior canines cross- 
ing each other when depressed.) 
1250. C. Miger Jolinsou. 
Entirely black. Head compressed, elongate, the crown flat, its depth 
less than half its length; maxillary reaching angle of prebpercle; both 
jaws armed with long, i^ointed, wide-set teeth, nearly all of which are 
movable; two anterior teeth of upper jaw very long, crossing each other 
when depressed ; three anterior pairs of teeth in lower jaw likewise pro- 
longed, the third pair the longest; palatines with a longer, fixed tooth 
in front. Eye moderate, above the anterior part of maxillary, in 
head, shorter than snout, as wide as interorbital space. Lateral line in 
a longitudinal groove. First dorsal of slender rays, its base 2^ in that 
of second dorsal; anal commencing behind second dorsal, its anterior 
rays without connection with vertebral column; posterior rays of anal 
and dorsal very feeble; pectoral as long as head without snout; ven- 
tral half as long as pectoral. Head 3^. D. 11-28; A. 27; P. 13; V. 5. 
L. 12 inches. {GUnther.) Deep seas; taken at Madeira and off the 
coast of Massachusetts. 
(Johnson, 1. c. 408: Chiasmodus niger Gunther, v, 435.) 
Family CXXI.— MACRURID^. 
{The Grenadiers.) 
■ Body elongate, tapering into a very long compressed tail, which ends 
in a point; scales moderate, very, rough, usually keeled or spinous. 
