1. MACRURUS. 393 



not longer than the diameter of the ej-e, which is one-third of the 

 length of the head. 

 Sea of Madeira. 



a, b, c-d. Adult, half-grown, and yoiing. Madeira. Presented by 



the Rev. R. T. Lowe and J. Y. Johnson, Esq. 

 e. Adult : skeleton. Presented by the Rev. R. T. Lowe. 



Description. — The length of the head equals the distance between 

 the first and twenty-eighth rays of the anal fin, its depth being more 

 than its width, and contained once and four-fifths in its length. The 

 projecting part of the snout is triangular, somewhat depressed, with 

 a ridge along the middle of its upper sm-face ; its lateral edge is con- 

 tinued into a ridge fomied by the suborbital ring, one part of which 

 ■is joined to the angle of the proeopcrculum as in t\ie Scorpcvnid(v &\\A. 

 Cottidce. Another ridge forms the upper margin of the orbit, is bi- 

 furcate anteriorly, to receive the nostrils into the fork, and extends 

 backwards to the upper part of the gill-opening. There is another 

 low ridge on each side of the crown. All these ridges leave spacious 

 muciferous cavities between them, and are covered, like the re- 

 mainder of the head, with hard, subimbricate spiny plates, the spines 

 not being lai'ger than those of the scales of the body. The inter- 

 orbital space is verj- slightly concave, and its width equals the vertical 

 diameter of the eye. The nostrils are immediately before the eye, 

 verj- close together, the posterior being a wide ovate sHt. 



The cleft of the mouth is much longer than broad, situated entirely 

 at the lower side of the head, the symphysis of the lower jaw being 

 in the same vertical with the front margin of the orbit. The upper 

 jaw is protractile in a vertical direction. Each jaw with a narrow 

 band of viUiform teeth ; lower jaw with a slender barbel, half as 

 long as the eye. 



The angle of the praiopercidum is produced backwards, rounded, 

 nearly in the same vertical as the angle of the operculum, which 

 points obUijuely upwards. The edge between the angles of the 

 operculum and prajoperculum is emarginate. The gdl-opening is of 

 moderate width, closed superiorly ; the giU-membrane attached to the 

 isthmus. Six branchiostegals ; four g]lls, a slit behind the fourth ; 

 pseudobrancliia? none. 



The height of the body is more than one-half of the length of 

 the head ; the tail is compressed, tapering to a point, so that tlie 

 length of the head is nearly one-fifth of the total. The first dorsid 

 commences at a short distance fi'om the occiput ; its distance from 

 the anterior nostrU equals the length of the head ; its length is two- 

 fifths of the height of the second (longest) ray ; the first ray is quite 

 rudimentary. The distance between the two dorsal fins is twice the 

 length of the base of the first, or the second dorsal commences in the 

 vertical from the twentieth scale of the lateral line. The second ray 

 of the first dorsal is smooth and rather feeble, its length being nearly 

 two-thirds of that of the head. Rays of the second dorsal very 

 feeble, simple, .shorter than the barbel. The anal fin commences 

 immediately beliind tlie vent, in the vertical from tlie twelfth scale 

 of the lateral line ; the longest rays are in the middle of the fin. 



