nscEs. 153 



Family XXXVII. Tcenoidei. Body compressed, elongate, 

 ensiform, with scales very small or none. Eyes large. Dorsal tin 

 very long. Ventral fins thoracic, or none. Teeth small or none. 

 (Branch iostegous membrane with rays mostly six. Swimming- 

 bladder in some.) 



A. Mouth protractile, aperture small. 



Stylephorus Shaw. Month edentulous. Body scaleless. Ven- 

 tral fins none. Caudal fin erect upwards, with last ray continuous 

 with body and produced into a seta longer than body. Branchioste- 

 gous membrane with fom* rays. 



Of this genus one specimen alone is known, which was taken in the 

 Mexican Sea, Stylex^liorus cordafus Shaw, Linx. Trans, i. p. 90, Tab. vi. 

 (an unnatural figure, copied in Bloch Syst. Ichth. Tab. 99) ; Blatnville 

 has given a more accurate figure and description of that specimen, Journal 

 de Physique, Tom. 87, 1818, pp. 68 — 71, PI. i. fig. i. Compare the 

 description in Cuv. et Val. Poiss. x. pp. 382 — 386, according to the 

 investigations of Valenciennes. 



TrachypterusG:0\jA^, G7/m7ioff aster ^RUEN'Slcyi, Bogmarus Bl., 

 SciiN. Mouth protractile, narrow, longitudinal, fornicate above, 

 with teeth few, conical, small, distant in both jaws. Body scale- 

 less. Lateral line armed with small osseous scutes furnished with a 

 short spine directed forward. Ventral fins thoracic, with several 

 rays, often elongate. Dorsal fin extended through the whole length 

 of body, high at the anterior part, with rays produced. Caudal fin 

 erect. Rudiment of anal fin at the apex of tail. Branchiostegous 

 membrane with six (or seven ?) rays. 



Sp. Traelvypterus hogmarus Valenc, Gymnogaster arcticus Beuennich ; this 

 fish from the North Sea at Iceland, sometimes also captured on the Norwe- 

 gian and Scottish coasts, was figured accurately for the first time by Rein- 

 HARDT Kongel. Danshe Videnskabernes Selnkabs vaiurvidensk. og mathem. 

 AfhandUnger, vii. 1838, pp. 65 — 82, Tab. i. ir., which figure reduced 

 is copied by Yarrell Brit. Fish. Su2)pl. 1839, p. 14. This fish, named 

 Vaagnuer (pronounced Vogmer), is from tlu-ee to near eight feet long. The 

 body continues of the same height for more than one half the length, 

 whilst in some species from the Medit. Sea it becomes suddenly lower 

 towards the tail. Such is Trachypterus iris Cuv., Cuv. et Val. Poiss. x. 

 PI. 297. In this respect, on the other hand, a specimen from the Cape of 

 Good Hope, which the Rijks-Museum received thi-ough Dr Horstok, agrees 

 wilh the northern Vaagmaer, or is perhaps not specifically distinct from it. 



There are in these fishes numerous pyloric appendages ; the swimming- 

 bladder is absent. The skin is covered with a silvery envelope, corresponding 



