DISCUSSION OP SPECIES AND THEIR DISTEII5UTI0N. 165 



sesses in addition to this ouly a single specimen of N'otaennthus — Jf^otac. ■^exspinis), but it is 

 in a very unsatisfactory condition. It was, perliaps, injured in transportation from Paris. 

 The jar has not beenoi)ened for more than thirty years. V^ery likely ISloch received it in a 

 poor state of preservation — a larj>(^ cavity in the belly, between the pectorals and vcntrals, a 

 dilapidated left cheek, injured eyeballs, intestines wanting, etc. In addition to this, thei-e 

 are other defects of a later date, such as the loss of the caudal, the tip of the snout, the 

 maceration of the frontal bones. The gill arch is almost entirely gone: the intestines alto- 

 gether. The frontal bone is crushed and the lirst vertebra is disconnected. There is a long 

 gap in the dorsal tin. 



The actual length is now 82 centimeters; in addition to this should be added, at the 

 most, 1 centimeter for the snout and g centimeter for the caudal tin. This makes its former 

 length about 85 centimeters. (IJloch says 2i feet; this would be, according to the Rhenish 

 [i. e. Prussian] measure, ouly ISh centiineters. Perhaps Bloch used a longer foot, or he gave 

 only an approximate measurement.) As we have no other specimen which we might have 

 confounded with that of Bloch, and ours still bears the label (apparently in Troschel's hand- 

 writing) "iS'o^flw/if/n/.v /(«s«s, Icelaiul, Bloch," I have no doubt that Xo. 1409 is the type 

 specimeu. Kor can tliere have been another in Paris. 



How much of the eud of the caudal is missing is difficult to say. The point of the frac- 

 ture is hard and the tin bones are soft. If Valencicunes's account is accurate, the caudal Jin 

 only is missing, and one or two rays of this are still attached. If Bloch's description is cor- 

 rect, there were 149 — (13-f8 or 1(» 1)^120-128 rays in the anal: consequently, a caudal end, 

 with at least 10 rays, in addition to the caudal tin, was lost, and the fish would have been 

 somewhat longer than 85 centimeters. I presume there was an oversight on Bloch's part. 



The material now classed by authors under the uame of N. nasus is the following: 

 (1) A specimen described by Fabricius iu 1798 under the generic name of Gnmpylodon, 

 obtained in 1794 from Greenland; (2) Bloch's type in the Berhn Museum, believed by him 

 to come from the West Indies, described under the names N. Chcmnitzii (?), N. nasm, and 

 Acantlwmtus nasus; (.3) A specimen, obtained off Iceland by La Recherche and brought by 

 Gaimard to the Paris Museum, figured in the Eegne Animal, and said to have been figured 

 also in the Voyage in Scaiulinavia. This, as has already been stated, is possibly a typical 

 F. nasus; (4) A specimen, 3 feet long, obtained in South Greenland, and brought iu 1877 to the 

 Copenhagen Museum. This alsois possibly nota characteristic representative of the species. 



Both Oanestrini and Giglioli enumerate ^^o/rtca«*/»(s m«6«s among Mediterranean fishes, 

 but entirely without authority. 



NOTACANTHUS ANALIS, Gill. (Figures 184 ; 191 A-B.) 

 i^otacanthus nnalis, Gill, Proc. U. S. N;it. Mus., vr, 1883, 255.— GCnther; Challenfier Report, XXII, 248, 

 note.— Vaillant, Exp. Sci. Travailli'ur ft Talisman, 318, e( 8«/.—Jokdan and Gilbert, Cat. Fish. N. 

 Amer., 1885, 58. 



A Notacanthus, with its body nuich higher over veutrals than over pectorals, and com- 

 paratively short, its height equal to one-third of the distance from the vent to the tip of 

 the snout, and nearly equal to the length of the head, the lateral line arcuate in front of 

 the dorsal spines, following profile of the back and then sinking to the median line of the 

 body. First dorsal spine in front of vertical from insertion of ventral. 



The snout is compressed, pointed, nnich produced beyond the moderate month. The cleft 

 extends nearly to the vertical through the middle of eye. The length of the snout is U 

 tunes the diameter of the eye. The width of the interorbital area is slightly less than the 

 diameter of the eye. The projection of the snout beyond the mouth is equal to the diameter 

 of the eye or nearly so. The snout is compressed, not swollen. Month narrow, transverse, 

 its width about one-fourth the length of the head. The eye is placed some distance below 

 the upper profile and in the line of the lateral line continued to the nostrils, (iill opening 

 wide; the membranes confiuent and .sliglitly in advance of the vertical from the upper end 

 of the gill opening; not attached to the isthmus. Scales very minute, imbritatcd. adherent. 



All the dorsal spines are short, the anterior very short; the second and first nearly o\er 

 the origin of the ventrals, the fifth above the vent and the sixth slightly behind the ori- 

 gin of the anal. The longest about one-half as long as the eye. The last (eleventh), which is 

 followed by a single ray attached to it by membrane, is over the fifteeutii spine of the anal. 

 The dorsal spiues are distant from each other, and behind each is a narrow angular mem- 

 brane. The anal begins immediately behind the vent, and in its middle portion is consid- 



