33. ALEPOCEPHALID.E ALEPOCEPIIALUS. 
257 
Family XXXIII.— ALEPOCEPHALID^. 
Body oblong, compressed, covered with thin cycloid or keeled scales, 
or with naked, prickly skin. Head naked. Lateral line developed. iSlo 
barbels. Mouth moderate or large. IMargin of the ui)per jaw formed 
by the premaxillaries and the maxillaries, the former being placed along 
the upper anterior edge of the latter. Teeth feeble. Opercular aj)- 
paratus complete, its bones thin. Xo adipose fin. Dorsal fin long 
and low, posterior, inserted opposite the anal; pectorals short, placed 
rather high ; ventrals usually well back, sometimes wanting. Gill-open- 
ings very wide, the membranes free from the isthmus. Pseudobranchiae 
present. No gular plate. No air-bladder. Stomnch curved, without 
blind sac. Pyloric cceca in moderate number. Fishes of the deep seas; 
but one species known until recently. Lately 3 genera and 7 species 
have been described from the abyssal faunae of the mid Atlantic and 
Pacific. 
{Alepoceplialidce Giiutlier, vii, 477.) 
a. Scales cycloid ; dorsal and anal subefpial, opposite each other; mouth small ; jaws 
nearly even; small teeth in jaws, vomer, and palatines. A lepocephxlus, 115. 
115.— AILEPOCEPEff ALUS Risso. 
(Risso, Mem. Acad. Nat. Sci. Turin, xxv, 270, 1820: type Alejmccpkalus rostraius Risso, 
from the Mediterranean.) 
Body oblong, compressed. Month rather small, the snout somewhat 
prolonged. Jaws nearly equal in front; a series of small teeth in each 
jaw and on the vomer and palatines. Eye very large. Gill-membranes 
entirely separate. Branchiostegals G. Opercular bones thin. Dorsal 
low and rather long, with a scaly base, opposite and similar to the 
anal. Pectorals and ventrals rather small. Caudal moderately forlced. 
Scales rather large, thin and cycloid. Deep-sea fishes of the Atlantic 
and Mediterranean, {a, privative; scale; xz<paX-^, head.) 
430. A. bairdii Goode & Bean. 
Uniform indigo-blue, the color extending to the iuside of the mouth 
and the gill-membranes. Body rather elongate. Dead moderately 
compressed, subconical, the loAver jaw included. Maxillary extending 
nearly to below middle of eye. Eye large, as long as snout. Dorsal 
slightly in advance of anal. Head 4^ in length; depth 5^. D. 22; A. 
25; P.12; V. I, 9; pyloric cocca 15 ; B. 6; scales 7-65-11. L. 24 inches. 
Grand Banks; dredged at a depth of 200 fathoms. {Goode cf Bean.) 
(Goodo & Lean, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mas. ii, 55, 1879.) 
Bull. Xat. Mus. Xo. IG 17 
