33 



Snout overhanging the mouth, blunt, rounded, about as long as the eye, 

 which is about a f oiu-th the length of the head : it, like the broad convex inter- 

 orbital space and the vertex of the head, is occupied by large deep polygonal 

 mucous cavities which are covered with thick spongy skin. The same sort of 

 skin covers the cheek and opercles, with the exception of the operculum which 

 is naked and coarsely striated. Nostrils large, situated near the lower angle of 

 the orbit. 



Mouth inferior, its cleft very slightly obhque : the maxilla is half as long as 

 the head and completely overlaps the mandible. Broad bands of hard black 

 villiform teeth in the jaws and palatines. 



Gill-cleft wide. Gill-rakers coarse, those on the outer side of the 1st arch 

 close set and more than half as long as the eye. PseudobranchijB very large. 

 The operculum completed behind by a flap of thick skin. 



Body covered with great irregular bony plates, many of which are acutely 

 keeled: there are 15 rows of them round the body at the level of the 2nd dorsal 

 spine, — the mid-ventral row, which are very strongly keeled, being unpaired. 



First dorsal fin in the form of 6 coarse isolated spines, of which the first 

 four are acute and fluted, and the last two are small truncated and eroded at tip. 

 The 2nd dorsal and the anal are placed far back on the body. The caudal 

 peduncle is formed very abruptly, its depth being less than a fifth the greatest 

 body-height. Ventral spine a great fluted spike, about five-sixths as long as the 

 head : it can be securely fixed like a bayonet, at right angles to the body. 



Colours in spirit greenish- yellow, the bony dermal plates neatly outlined in 

 black. 



A single specimen, an adult female with ova, a little over six inches long, 

 from the Gulf of Martaban, (j^ fathoms. 



Eegd. No. ip. 



Distribution : Japanese Seas, Port Jackson, Andaman Sea, Mauritius. 



HoPLOSTETHUs, Cuv. & Val., Gthr. 



Boplostethus, Cuv. and Val., Hist. Nat. Poiss. IV. p. 469 : Giinther Cat. Fislips I. p. 9 (uhi synon.) and Chal- 

 lenger Deep Sea Fishes, p. 20 : Goode and Bean, Oceanic Ichthyology, p. 189 : Jordan and Evermann, Fishes of 

 North America I. p. 837. 



" Body deep, compressed, covered with scales of moderate size and more or 

 " less distinct ctenoid structure, rather irregularly arranged, those of the lateral 

 ' ' line being the largest. 



" Head very large, the superficial bones being deeply sculptured to receive 



" wide muciferous cavities which are covered by thin skin only. Mouth very 



"wide, oblique; the jaws and palatine bones armed with villiform teeth, the 



" vomer being toothless. Eye very large. Eight branchiostegals ; gill-oiJenings 



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