2, LEPiBOPus. 345 



Lepidopus caudatus, Wliife, Catal. Brit. Fishes, p. 32 

 bkeleton : Agass. Recherch. Poiss. Fuss. v. pi. of 

 D. 102-104. A. 24-25. Ciec. pylor. 23. Vert. 41/71 

 The height of the body is 15| in the total length; the caudal 

 deeply forked. Anal spines in great number— minute, if visible 

 Uniiorm silvery. 



Megterranean. Eastern shores of the Atlantic, from the Cape of 

 (jood Hope to the south coast of England. 



a. Fifty inches long : stuffed. English coast. 



b. Young. EngKsh coast. From Montagu's CoUection 



c Adult. South Europe. Presented by R. B. Webb Eso 



d. Adult. Atlantic. ' ^' 



e Fine specimen. Lisbon. Presented by the Rev. R. T. Lowe 



/. Adiilt : stuffed Cape Seas. From Sir A. Smith's Collection. 



g. bixty-tour inches long : stuffed. 



h. Fifty-six inches long : stuffed. 



i. Five feet long : skeleton. 



Jc. Young. From the CoUection of the Zoological Society 



I, m. Young. From the Haslar Collection. 



SJceleton.—The skeleton of this species is very simUar to that of 

 Ajjhanopus, from which it differs in the foUowing points ■— 



Two ndges running along the interorbital space converge pos- 

 teriorly and form an acute prominence at their meeting anglerwhere 

 externaUy, the elevation of the neck is visible ; they are not continued 

 into an occipital crest. 



There are two crests on each side of the occiput, converginff an- 

 teriorly and forming a single crest. 



The head of the vomer forms a semicircular plate, sUghtly exca- 

 vated and entirely smooth. The margin of the palatine bone is pro- 

 vided with a series of minute teeth. 



The middle part of the maxillary is much broader than its extre- 

 mity, whilst in Aphanoims the latter is the broader. The two lonff 

 teeth at the foremost extremity of the intermaxillary, which we 

 have described m Aplianopus, are absent in this species, whilst the 

 two other pairs, situated further backwards, are the same • the re 

 _ maindor of the jaw is occupied by a series of about twenty much 

 smaller teeth. The mandibula has a fang in front, and about twenty 

 smaller ones on the side. ^ 



_ The praeoperculum is quite smooth, without ridge ; the operculum 

 ^quadrangular, and has, like the subopereulum, the posterior margin 



The epicoracoid is long and rib-Hke ; the ulna is distinguished bv 

 Its considerable width and by a rounded inferior margin. The pubic 

 bones are reduced to a stylifoi-m bone. 



There are forty-one abdominal and seventy-one* caudal vertebrcp 

 the length of the former portion of the vertebral column being to that 

 of the latter as 1:1-3. Several of the intemeural spines are swollen 



