PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 261 



DESCRIPTION OF AKGENTI.NA SYRTENSirM, A ISMW DEEP-SEA FISH 

 FROM SABINE ISLAND BANK. 



By G. BKOTVN OOODEI aaad TARl-ETOIV M. BEAIV. 



The United States Fish Commission has lately received from Capt. 

 Joseph W. Collins, of the schooner Marion, of Gloucester, Mass., and 

 from Mr. R. L. Newcomb, of Salem, who accompanied him on this voyage 

 as a collector, an apparently undescribed species of Argentina. A single 

 specimen was taken September 4, 1878, from the stomach of a hake 

 {Phycis tenuis f) hooked on a halibut trawl-line, set in 200 fathoms of 

 water, on Sable Island Bank, off the coast of Nova S^iotia. This fish 

 (No. 21,024) is about 17 inches long and in a dilapidated condition, hav- 

 ing been partially digested by its first captor. The tips of the fins, 

 especially, are much frayed out. The measurements, however, are 

 believed to be very nearly exact. 



Argentina syrtensium, sp. nov. 



Description. — Body compressed, resembling in form thatof Silus Ascanii 

 Reinhardt {= Argentina silus (Asc.) Nillson) ; its height contained about 

 oj times in its length without caudal, and slightly greater than twice 

 the diameter of the orbit; its greatest width one-tenth of total length ; 

 its height at ventrals contained about 5f times in the same and equal to 

 thrice least height of body at the caudal peduncle. 



Length of head slightly less than twice its greatest height, and slightly 

 more than one-fourth of the length of the body ; its greatest width is 

 twice that of the interorbital area. The length of the snout equals that 

 of the operculum, is slightly greater than that of the maxillary, and is 

 contained not quite 3.J times in the length of the head. 



The first dorsal fin is inserted midway between snout-tip and adipose 

 dorsal fin ; its basal length equal to the height of its first ray, and slightly 

 more than half that of the longest ray ; it is also equal to the orbital 

 diameter and the length of the mandible ; the last dorsal ray is slightly 

 longer than the height of the caudal peduncle. 



The adipose dorsal fin is inserted in the perpendicular from the seventh 

 anal ray; its basal length, which is two-thirds of its height, being about 

 equal to one-tenth of the length of the head. 



The anal fin is inserted in the perpendicular from the 44th or 45th 

 scale of the lateral line, its length of base slightly greater than length of 

 the mandible, its first ray one-third as long as its third ray, its last ray 

 equalling in height the adipose dorsal. 



The caudal is deeply forked, its external ray 2^ times as long as its 

 median rays. 



The pectoral is inserted close to the branchial opening ; its length is 

 equal to three-fifths of the distance of its insertion from the snout-tip. 



