ZOOLOGY. 507 



pressed and the "skin smooth; the spinous dorsal fin, is reduced to a 

 single cephalic tentacle, the basal part of which is erect, not procum- 

 bent ; " the soft dorsal and anal are very far back near the caudal and 

 even more reduced than usual, the dorsal having only three unbranched 

 rays and the anal two. But what especially distinguishes the new 

 fish from its relations is the development of a long tentacle from the 

 throat; the tentacle originates between the rami of the lower jaw "at 

 a distance from the symphysis about equal to half the length of the 

 jaw, " and is " nearly three times and a half as long as the tentacle on 

 the snout," extending a distance equal to that " from the front of the 

 eye to the root of the caudal fin ; it is 'thinner than the cephalic spine, 

 and divides itself at the end into two short, pointed blades, the length 

 of each being 6'"™. Whilst the tentacle otherwise is black, the inner 

 edges of these blades are white, like the upper half of the snout ten- 

 tacle, and are furnished with a row of round papill;©, about thirty 

 on each, resembling a chain of pearls. These small bodies undoubtedly 

 have a use, either as organs of sense or as the source of a phosphor- 

 escent light." As usual in the family, the color of the new fish is "jet- 

 black, with the exception of the upper half of the bulb of the tentacle 

 on the snout and the inner margins of the ends of the guttural tenta- 

 cle, which are white, but which in the living fish have probably been 

 silvery and phosphorescent." 



The fish thus distinguished has been named by Prof. Collett Linophryne 

 liicifer, and would be regarded by some ichthyologists as the represent- 

 ative of a new subfamily within the family Ceratiidae, to be named Lino- 

 phrynina\ 



Captain* Andresen was on a voyage to the West Indies when he saw 

 the fish. " He was capturing turtle in his boat; there was a heavy 

 swell, but the water was smooth. After a time he caught sight of this 

 little black fish, which lay on the surface quite alive, but almost mo- 

 tionless, which was not surprising when it was discovered that it had 

 just swallowed a fish larger than itself. It did not lie on its side, but 

 was apparently unable to swim. B3' getting the bailer under it he lifted 

 it out with ease, and in order to keep it fresh he gave up his search for 

 turtle and rowed back to the ship, where it was placed in spirit for 

 preservation." The fish contained in the stomach was " one-half 

 longer" than its captor, and belonged to the family' Scopelidae. (Proc. 

 Zool. Soc. London, 1886, pp. 138-143, pi. 15.) 



Amphibians. 



Recent additions to the amphibians. — In 1882 Dr. G. A. Boulenger pub- 

 lished his catalogues of all the existing amphibians. Eecently he lias 

 given the "first rei)ort on additions to the batrachian collection in the 

 Natural History Museum," and it ai)pears therefrom that sixty-three 

 species of ecaudate amphibians (frogs, toads, etc.), four species of cau- 

 date (salamanders), and seven species of apodal amphibians (ca3ciliaus) 



