256 PROCEEDINGS OF UXITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



i>Esc;KnE»'£rao:^s of two «ae5©iio fd^bses, piaYfl^ns cmesteri A!v» 



nAB.On^OKPDaVKCJS VQOILA, from TEIE I>EEP.SEAEAiriVA OF THE 

 JVOR'jrEaiVESTEKi"V ATIiA.^rTDl'. 



By G. BROW]\ GOODE and TAKlLETOi^ H. BEAIV. 



Three specimens of an undescribed species of Phycis were obtained 

 by the U. S. Fish Commisiou during the past season. The larger one 

 measured 0.242"^ without caudal and two others respectively 0.143" and 

 0.128'". The former is the basis of the following diagnosis; the others 

 being evidently immature and having the characteristics of the species, 

 especially the length of the lin-tilaments, less pronounced. 



Phycis Chesteri, sp. nov. 



Head contained in body (without caudal) 4J times, height of body 5 

 times. Diameter of orbit in length of head 3^ times, maxillary twice. 

 Barbel about one-third of diameter of orbit. Vent situated under 12th 

 ray of second dorsal, and equidistant from tip of snout and end of second 

 dorsal. Distance of dorsal fin from snout equal to twice the length of the 

 mandible; the third ray of the firstdorsal isextremely elongate, extending 

 to a ijoint (33d ray of second dorsal) two-thirds of the distance from snout 

 to tip of caudal, its length more than twice that of the head, and more than 

 four times as long as the rays immediately preceding and following it. 

 Anal fin inserted immediately behind the vent, its distance from the 

 root of the ventrals equal to that of the dorsal from the snout. As in 

 the other species of the genus,* the ventral is composed of three rays, the 

 first two much prolonged. The first is contained three times in the 

 length of the body, the second is almost three times as long as the head, 

 reaching to the 40th anal ray or 3 of the distance from snout to tip of 

 caudal ; the third is shorter than the diameter of the orbit. 



The pectoral is four times as long as the operculum. Scales large 

 and thin, easily wrinkling with the folding of the thick loose skin, par- 

 ticularly in the median line of the sides of the body. Lateral line much 

 broken on the i)osterior half of the body. 



Scales 7, 90-91, 28, 



Eadial formula :— D. 9 or 10, 55 to 57. A. 50. 0. 5, 18 to 21, 5. P. 

 17-18. V. 3. 



*A critical study of the ventral fins of Phycis compels us to believe that the ventral 

 fin is composed of three rays covered at the base with a thick shin in such manner as 

 to obscure the third, short one, and to join the other two so that they appear like a 

 single bifid ray. In young individuals of Phycis chuss, the third ray has its extremity 

 protruding from the sheath, though in adults it becomes entirely enveloped, thus 

 giving rise to the false definitions which have been given for this genus. An adult 

 specimen ol Phycis furcatus, Flem. (No. 17,371 of the National Museum collection), has 

 the third ventral ray protruding. 



