BERYCOIDS. 



67 



iucreiising in leugtli but shorter than the first soft rays. 

 Another peculiarity lies in the fact that the dorsal part 

 of the larfje lateral muscles extends over the occiput 

 ;ind the top of the head, and lias its anterior starting 

 points on the forehead, just abovc> the eyes, while in 

 the other, younger genera of the family tlie posterior 

 parts of the head are naked and ha\e their osseous 

 covering adorned and strengthened by raised ridges 

 and bars, essentially corresponding to those we liave 

 seen in Poli/prion and, to some extent, in I'erca, but 

 longer, more crowded and sharper. Among the other 

 bones of the head, in Bevyx too, the preoperculum, 

 the interoperculum, the nasal bones, the naked part of 

 tlie frontal bones, the upper part of the maxillaries 

 and the branches of the mandible are well furnished 

 Avith serrate teeth at the margin or on the ridges which 

 cross their surface. The preorbital, nasal and frontal 



bones (the latter just abo\e the eyes) are furnished with 

 spines, which are sometimes branched, and disappear 

 or at least diminish with age. 



The genus inliabits tlie abysses of the Atlantic and 

 Pacific Oceans, forming one of the many traces of the 

 partial survival of tlie Cretaceous Period in the life of 

 the present deep-sea fauna". It is taken in Australia 

 more often than in any other country, though even 

 there only occasionally and by fishermen engaged with 

 other fish, and the flesh of one species is thei-e prized 

 as one of the greatest delicacies'. The number of 

 existing species, according to Gunther {Cat., 1. c.) is 

 5, but our ignorance of the changes in these species 

 Avhich are due to age, is a strong ground for doubt as 

 to the correctness of all of them. From the Cretaceous 

 Period Agassiz (1. c.) cites 5 known species, and since 

 his time 3 more have been described". 



BERYX DECADACTYLUS. 



Fis;. 18. 



Spinous rays in the dorsal fin only 4, soft rays over 15. Greatest depth of the body from 43 to 45 % of the 



length from the tip of the snout to the end of the middle rays of the caudal fin. Col on r of the body on the head 



and the hack down to the lateral line, as well as all the fins and the spines of the head, bright red, towards the 



belly shading into light silver with a reddish lustre. Eyes tvine-yellow, transparent as glass. 



R. br. 8; Z>/' 



18—19 



A." 



4 1 



• P ■' 2 + 14- V ^ — • 



27-29' ^ ' 10' 



C'.'' x+\l+x; L. lat.' 07; L. tr. 



11 

 20 



+ 1. 



•^i/n. Beryx decadactylus, Cuv., Val., Hist. Sat. Poiss., vol. Ill, 



p. 222; Gthe, Cat. Brit. Mus., Fish., vol. I, p. 16; Steind., 



Stzber. Akad. Wiss. Wien, LVI (1867), I, p. 603, tab. I. 



Urocentrus ruber, Dub. ct Kor. (per Duben) Ofvers. Vet.-Akad. 



Forh., 1844, p. 111. 



Beryx borealis, Dub. et Kob., Vet.-Akad. Hand]. 1844, p. 35, 

 tab. II, fig. 1 et 2 ; Nilss., Skaiid. Fii., Fisk., p. 37; Coll., 

 Vid. Selsk. Christ. Forh. 1874, Tilliegsh., p. 14; Lillj., 

 Sv., Norg. Fn., Fisk., voL I, p. 76; Coll., Vid. Selsk. 

 Christ., Forh. 1884, No, 1, tab. I. 



Obs. Amongst the booty taken by the French from Lisbon, 

 when Napoleon I caused the treasures of the Portuguese Museum to 

 be conveyed to Paris, was a dried specimen of this species, with no 

 locality assigned to it, which was described and named by Cuvier. 



" Cf. Smitt, De senaste drens undersokningar om hafsfaunans griins mot djupet. in the Magazine Fraintiden. Vol. Ill, (1870), p. 335. 

 * Tenison-Woods, Fish. a. Fisher, N. S. Wales, Sydney 1882, p. 61. 

 ■■ Pictet: Tr. de Pale'ont., vol. 2, p. 50. 



4 



— according to GOxther. 



D. 

 ' A. 



16—19 

 4 



according to Steindachner. 



27—30 



/p. 2 + 15 according to Steind., 1 + 15 according to Collett. 

 1 



V. 



according to Steind. 



9—10 



'' C. x+18+.r according to v. DCben ct Koren and Lilljebobg. 

 ' L. lat. 60 — 62 according to Steind., 64 — 65 according to Gthr 



10—11 



L. tr. 34 — 35 according to Gthr, 



21—22 



according to Steind.. 30 — 31 according to Lilueboro. 



