4. HALARGYREUS. 343 



genus was found in the stomach of a very fine specimen of Sacco- 

 pharynx, prociu-ed and presented to the Museum by Mr. J. Y. Johnson, 

 a gentleman to whom science is indebted for very valuable additions 

 to our knowledge of the marine fauna of Madeira. The posterior 

 part of the tail is broken oft', or was digested in the stomach of its 

 destroyer. There can be little doubt that it was provided with a 

 separate caudal, as in the aDied genera Haloporphyrus and Mora. 



The head is rather elongate and compressed, its length being equal 

 to the distance between the vent and the root of the ventrals ; it is 

 much higher than broad, its greatest height being more than one- 

 half of its length. The snout is obtusely conical, a little longer 

 than the diameter of the eye, which is one-fourth of the length of 

 the head. Cleft of the mouth wide, the maxillary extending be- 

 yond the vertical from the middle of the eye. Upper jaw without 

 Hp, that of the lower very thin ; the lower is received within the 

 upper, both being equal in length anteriorly. A small bony tubercle, 

 pointing obliquely forwards and downwards, occupies the lower part 

 of the symphysis of the mandibles. The upper and lower jaws are 

 armed with a narrow band of minute villiform teeth of equal size. 

 The interorbital space is flattish, and its -width rather less than the 

 vertical diameter of the orbit. Praeoperculum rounded ; operculum 

 and suboperculum each terminating in a very small spine — both spines 

 close together. 



Branchiostegals seven; gill-openings very wide, the gill -membranes 

 scarcely united below the anterior third of the orbit ; gills four, a 

 cleft behind the fourth ; the first branchial arch is provided ante- 

 riorly with long gill-rakers, longer than the lamellae of the gills. 



The greatest depth of the trunk is equal to the distance between 

 the anterior margin of the orbit and the end of the operculum. The 

 anterior dorsal commences immediately behind the vertical from the 

 root of the pectoral, and is composed of very slender simple and arti- 

 culated rays, the anterior of which is the longest, half as long as the 

 head. The second dorsal commences immediately behind the first, 

 and is not much lower, its base being covered by a thin scaly mem- 

 brane. The vent is situated in the vertical from the ninth ray of the 

 second dorsal, and the anal commences immediately behind it. The 

 fourth to seventh rays are the longest, the posterior decreasing in 

 length to the seventeenth, after which four or five short rays foUow, 

 preceding the stronger rays of the second anal. Base of the pectoral 

 narrow, its length being more than one-half of the length of the 

 head ; ventrals very narrow, with flat base, the outer ray being pro- 

 duced into a very fine filament of moderate length. 



The scales extend forward on the snout. 



The colour appears to have been a delicate red on silvery ground ; 

 pectoral and anal transparent. Mouth and giU-cavity black. 



This is a deep-sea fish like Saccopharytix ; the stomach of the 

 specimen was forced up into the mouth. 



inches, lines. 

 Distance of the end of the snout from the ex- 

 tremity of the operculum . 2 5 



