35 



Six specimens, the largest nearly a foot long, from off Madras, 145-250 

 fathoms, off Trincomali, 320-296 fathoms, and off Travancore coast 224 to 430 

 fathoms. 



Eegd. Nos. 13711 : 14126-14129 : ~ : ^. 



Distrihutiou : Atlantic coast of North America, between ll"" and 40° N. lat. : 

 off the European and African shores of the Atlantic from Ireland to Cape Verde : 

 Mediterranean : Arabian Sea : Bay of Bengal : Japanese Seas. At moderate 

 depths (about 150 to about 400 fathoms, where the depth has been recorded). 



In the Indian Museimi there are also specimens from the Caribbean Sea and from 

 the Gulf of Gascony. 



Tbachichthts Shaw, Cuv. & Val., Giinther. 



Trachichthys, Cuv. & Val., Hiat. Nat. Poiss. III. p. 229 : Giiather, Cat. Fishes, I. p. 10 {ubi synon.), and 

 Challenger Deep-Sea Fishes, p. 21 : Goode and Bean, Oceanic Ichthyology, p. 187. 



TracJiichthys differs from HoplostetJms only in having villiform teeth on the 

 vomer. The pyloric casca (in some species) are less numerous, and there is a 

 distinct spine on the operculum. 



19. Trachichthys Darwinii, Johnson. 



Trachichthys Darwinii, Johnson, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1866, p. 311, pi. xxxii. 



Trachichthys japonicus, Steindachner & Doderlein, Denk. Ak. Wien, XLVII, 1883, p. 218, pi. ii. 

 TracfeicArtys Dnntiinii, Giinther, Challenger Deep-Sea Pishes, p. 24 (iiii st/«o».): Alcock J.A.S.B. LXV. 1896, 

 pt. 2, p. 314 : Goode and Bean, Oceanic Ichthyology, p. 188, fig. 207. 



B. 8. D. VIII. 13. A. III. 11. P. 15. V. I. 6. L. lat. 27-30. 



Height of body about 2-, length of head about 2- in the total length without 



the caudal. 



Bones of vertex of head and of sub-orbital ring, but not of any part of the 

 opercle, sculptured for muciferous cavities that are covered with a harsh skin in 

 which tiny scales are embedded : the cheeks, the membranous edge of the 

 operculum, and the middle line of the chin are also scaly. A flat supra- clavicular 

 spine of no great size : a very strong flat spine at the angle of the preopercle : 

 a stay, ending in a prominent spine, across the upper part of the operculum, 

 which bone has a striated surface. 



Snout (measured to the tip of the symphysis of the lower jaw) a little longer 

 than the eye and about equal to the width of the interorbital space. Eye large, 

 round, its diameter about one-fourth the length of the head. Nostrils very large, 

 situated near the upper angle of the eye. 



Mouth very wide and oblique, approaching the vertical : the lower jarw, 

 though closing inside the upper, projecting : the upper jaw two-thirds as long as 

 the head. Villiform teeth in jaws and vomer and in a long narrow band in the 



