322 DEEP SEA FISHES. 
their extremities, Plate LXIII. fig. 4. The branchial skeleton is shown in 
fig. 5 of this plate; all of the bones are elongate and siender. Certain 
features of the vertebra over the branchial chamber distinguish this genus 
from genera like Labichthys and Nemichthys or from such as Venefica and 
Xenomystax. The neural spine of the first vertebra behind the head rises 
from the hinder portion of the centrum and reaches backward over the 
second vertebra; the neural spine of the latter rises above the middle of the 
centrum and passes upward almost vertically; the spine of the third verte- 
bra, as that of each of the five vertebrae immediately back of it, rises from 
the forward portion of the centrum and extends forward. The ends of the 
spines of the first and the third vertebre are close together at the apex of 
the spine of the second vertebra. The ninth vertebra, has two neural spines, 
one at each end of the centrum, of which the anterior is extended forward, 
as in case of the third to the eighth, while the posterior is directed backward, 
as is the case with the spines of the tenth and following vertebra, each of 
which bears a single spine, that on the hinder half of the centrum. In the 
scapulary arch there is but a single elongate element. Carpals, radius and 
ulna are represented by the peculiar little semicartilaginous plate attached to 
the scapulary and bearing the minute six-rayed pectoral, Plate LXIII.fig. 3. 
The stomach is a long sac, pointed at the posterior extremity, which 
reaches some distance behind the vent; the short intestine leaves it on the 
lower side near the hinder two fifths of its length and passes back nearly 
straight to the end. 
Pectorals small, as long as the orbit, at the upper angle of the gill aper- 
ture, of six to seven rays. Vertical fins low, better developed toward the 
caudal; dorsal lower, originating above the eleventh ray of the anal fin; 
anal origin about one third and dorsal about two thirds of the length of 
the head behind the latter; caudal acuminate. On some individuals the 
caudal base is truncate and bears six rays the median of which are longest ; 
on others the base is more rounded and the rays of dorsal and anal appear 
to meet behind it. 
Total length twenty-two and one half inches. 
Black with more or less of a silvery shine, or in young specimens silvery 
with more or less of blackish. In cases the appearance is dark silver grey, 
in others the skin is silvery with numerous dots of black, or black with sil- 
very spaces, or in some the black predominates anteriorly and the silver 
posteriorly ; caudal white, hinder edges of dorsal and anal light. 
