82 DEEP SEA FISHES. 
region narrow, deep. Head large, half of the length from snout to base of 
caudal, subquadrangular with sharp angles in trans-section, rather wide but 
less deep forward ; crown wide, a transversely concave longitudinal trough 
from snout to nape; sides vertical, to concave about the mouth. Snout 
half as long as the head, broadly rounded across the end, concave between 
the nostrils, with a maxillary spine (or process) in front of each intermaxil- 
lary below the nostrils; chin longer, with a prominent symphyseal angle. 
Mouth large, cleft reaching about to a vertical from the front of the orbit, 
rising little forward, upper border formed by the premaxille ; mandible half 
as long as the head. ‘Teeth small, depressible, acicular, unequal, numerous, 
in single series on intermaxillaries and dentaries, longer on the lower 
jaws. A short series of four pharyngeal teeth on each side. Eye small, 
lateral, in the upper one-third of the height and behind the mid length 
of the head. Gills three, arches long, lamellz short, no gill on the first 
arch, Plate XV., fig. 1; gill openings of moderate width, vertical, below 
the carpal joints. Branchiostegal rays six, Plate XV., fig. 2. A prominent 
sharp spinelike angle below the articular; a second below and at the 
inner side of the first; a third, the post-orbital spine, on the top of the 
head, prominent and sharp, at the end of the frontal ridge. Skin lax, 
thin, investing the fins well toward the extremities of the rays, without 
scales or asperities of any kind. 
Ilicium (first dorsal spine, Plates XIII, XIV.) suprarostral, length 
nearly three-fourths of that of the entire fish, reaching the base of the 
caudal, in two subequal sections, besides a basal portion applied to the 
top of the skull in the bottom of the trough and reaching backward to 
the eyes, outer section with a fleshy bulb on which is a wormlike process 
at the distal end. Possibly there are two or more processes on the bait 
(esca). Lower articulation of the illicium between the nostrils, distant 
from the end of the snout about three diameters of the eye or less than 
half the distance between the spines on the snout. The proximal half 
of the staff is somewhat enlarged by the muscles that move the distal 
joint and the esca. This last is a short rather wide black fleshy bulb with 
a white process toward the outer end, Plate XIII., fig. 5-7; though 
appearing deep black at the sides the esca dilates or spreads out in 
function disclosing a whitish probably luminous median portion which on 
front and back displays a couple of eyelike spots. The esca evidently 
simulates the appearance of certain prey, as in case of Lophiomus caulinaris, 
