66 DEEP SEA FISHES. 
those preserved in alcohol, excepting the fins, which have a lighter appear- 
ance, the surface and the linings of the body cavity are black. 
Station. Latitude. Longitude, Depth. Temperature. Bottom. 
3382 6° 21’ N. 80° 41’ W. 1793 fathoms 35.8° F. Green mud. 
Melamphaés maxillaris sp. n. 
Plate D, fig. 1. 
DB: THE 105 Aad, (Se Va ig Bae ah) 25 ea: 
Compared with Melamphaés nigrofulvus the present type is distinguished 
by the large mouth, the dentition, the small eye, the smaller scales, and the 
backward position of the anal fin. The last mentioned would place this 
type between the species of the subgenus Plectromus and those of 
Melamphaés proper. Body somewhat stout, compressed, depth near one 
fourth, width nearly one sixth and length of the body cavity a considerable 
more than one half of the total length; depth of caudal peduncle two fifths 
of the greatest depth of the body. Head large, strongly arched on crown 
and snout, subvertical on the sides, length less than one third of the entire 
length, depth three fourths and width one half of its length. Snout large, 
broad, blunt, rounded at the end, more than twice as long as the eye, lower 
jaws longer, symphyseal angle prominent. Mouth very large, oblique; 
maxillary more than half as long as the head, reaching one diameter of the 
orbit farther backward than the latter. Teeth very small, equal, in bands 
of several series on each jaw. Eye small, less than half as long as the snout, 
less than half of the interorbital width, near one ninth of the length of the 
head. Bones of skull thin and fragile, deeply excavated; skull convex on 
the crown, with a low keel-like expansion at each side of the parietal 
region, a more prominent expansion above each orbit and extending forward 
of the nasal sac and down and back below the orbit, and another above 
each maxillary. Below the chin a pair of expansions, one on each man- 
dible, meet and form a median longitudinal keel. Opercular ridges low and 
thin at the edges; upper edge of preoperculum with minute serrations or 
feeble spines ; a sharp internarial spine immediately forward of which are 
two sharp spines at the upper ends of the premaxillary processes. Gill 
lamellae very short; gill rakers long, more than twice the length of the 
eye, becoming very slender in the outer half, acicular, six plus fifteen. 
Pseudobranchiz small. 
