1. MACEUKTJS, 391 



only towards the top. Vent situated behind the vertical from the 

 origin of the second dorsal. Snout projecting, triangular, as long as 

 the eye. 



Greenland ; occasionally on the northern coasts of Scandinavia. 



a, b. Twenty-five and thirty inches long : stufied : not good state. 

 Greenland. 



2. Macrurus australis. 

 Lepidoleprus australis, Richards. Proc. Zool, Soc. 1839, p. 100. 

 D. 13 I 88. A. 87. V. 7. L. lat. ca 130. L. transv. 4/15. 



Vert. 14/53. 

 Each scale with twelve or thirteen keels, and with the margin 

 crenulated. The second dorsal ray smooth, extending beyond the 

 origin of the second dorsal tin, if laid backwards. Vent situated be- 

 hind the vertical from the last ray of the first dorsal. The projecting 

 part of the snout trihedral, scarcely longer than the diameter of the 

 eye, which is rather less than one-third of the length of the head. 

 Port Arthur, 



a. Tj'pe of the species. From the Haslar Collection. 

 h. Adult : stuffed : bad state. 



Descrijption. — The head is rather compressed ; its length is equal to 

 the distance between the first and twenty- third rays of the anal fin ; its 

 depth is much more than its width, two-thirds of its length. The 

 projecting part of the snout is trihedral, not depressed, with a ridge 

 along the middle of its upper surface. The ridges on the head are 

 very obtuse, the most distinct being that running from the snout to 

 the angle of the praeoperculum ; it is formed by the same bones as in 

 M. atlanticus. The whole head is covered by small plates, the surface 

 of which is provided with small spines ; the opercles are scaly. The 

 interorbital space is nearly flat, and its width is a little more than 

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

 the eye, very close together, the posterior being a wide ovate slit. The 

 cleft of the mouth is longer than wide, situated entirely at the lower 

 side of the head, the symphysis of the lower jaw being in the same 

 vertical with the anterior nostril. The upper jaw is protractile in a 

 vertical direction. Each jaw with a band of coarse villiform teeth ; 

 lower jaw with a slender barbel, equal in length to the vertical dia- 

 meter of the eye. 



The angle of the praeoperculum is rounded, slightly produced, but 

 not extending so far backwards as that of the operculum. S«b- 

 operculum subvertical, slightly emarginate posteriorly. Gill-opening 

 of moderate width, closed superiorly ; the gill-membrane attached 

 to the isthmus. Six branchiostegals ; four gills, a slit behiad ttie 

 fourth ; pseudobranchiae none. 



The height of the body is equal to three-quarters of the length of 

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

 length of the head enters nearly five times in the total. The first 

 dorsal commences at a short distance from the occiput ; its distance 



