MACRURUS ORBITALIS. 207 
origin, close to the bases of the ventrals. Thirty-five pyloric appendages. 
Scales of medium size, harsh with sharp spines which rise in longitudinal 
series, in some cases of a dozen or more, the hindmost spines projecting 
backward from the edge of the scale like the teeth from a comb. On 
some scales the median series is somewhat larger than the others, though 
rarely producing the appearance of a keel. The head is covered with sharp 
scales, except on the lower surface, around the mouth, chin and throat. No 
bare space between the ventrals on the chest. 
Described from a specimen ten and one half inches in length. 
Black to brown, more often reddish brown on the muscular portions. 
The spines of the scales give the body a grayish tint in certain lights. 
Station, Latitude. Longitude. Depth. Temperature. Bottom, 
3384 oxolurdOseNt 79° 14’ W. 458 fathoms BOOB Gn. 8. 
3385 ipeo2 SO ING 79° 16’ W. 286 “ 45.9° F. Gn. M. 
Macrurus orbitalis sp. n. 
Plate XL VIL figs. 1-1 b. 
Br. r. 7; D. 11-12 + ?; A. 128; V. 9; P. 19-20. 
Form compressed, elongate, tapering to very slender in the caudal ex- 
tremity, depth four fifths of the length of the head, outline rising from the 
nape to the dorsal fin. Head one fifth of the total length; crown nearly 
straight from snout to nape; interorbital width four fifths of the length of 
the snout, space flattened or slightly concave; rostral ridge low. Snout 
four fifths as long as the eye, broader than the interorbital space, prominent 
in front of the mouth, with strong median and prenarial angles, from the 
latter of which the suborbital ridges spread somewhat to below the front of 
the eye, rarely to the ends at the preopercular border. Eye large, one and 
one fourth times the length of the snout, four thirteenths of the length of 
the head, or nearly one and two thirds times the width of the space between 
the orbits. Orbit appearing subcireular or deeper in the posterior half. 
Mouth small, inferior, subtending three fifths of the eye and one third of the 
snout. Barbel small, slender, two fifths as long as the eye. Teeth very 
small, subequal, in villiform bands. Preopercular ridge bent slightly back- 
ward in the lower third of its length. Origin of first dorsal above the base 
of the pectoral; second spine serrate; base descending rapidly backward 
from the first spine. Second dorsal low, feebly developed. Anal origin 
