193 



Snout short, between a fifth and a sixth of the length of the head measured 

 to the gill-opening, round-pointed, somewhat depressed, studded, like the head 

 and cheeks, with minute pores. 



Byes very small, their diameter about a fifth the length of the snout, deeply 

 sunk beneath the skin. Nostrils large, the anterior tubular, the posterior simple. 



Mouth-cleft wide, rather more than a third the length of the head ; lips 

 inflated, with many small pores ; jaws weak. A row or very narrow band of 

 minute teeth in the upper jaw ; a row of small teeth in the lower jaw ; a short 

 row of large teeth at the fore end of the vomer. 



Gill-covers formed of tough skin, in which neither bony opercles nor bran- 

 chiostegal rays can be detected. Branchial arches very weak : gill-laminae broad. 



No scales : the lateral line, which consists of a row of smaU pores, follows 

 the dorsal curve. 



Vertical fins fairly well developed. Pectorals rather longer than the snout, 

 rounded or truncated. 



Colour brown, paler beneath ; vertical fins darker, edged with white. 



The body-cavity extends more than halfway along the tail, and the intestinal 

 loop follows it. Air-bladder thick-walled, nacreous, consisting of three lobes — a 

 large middle one with a small one on each side. 



An adult female is 11 inches long. 



Bay of Bengal, 112, 128, 193, 145 to 250, and 240 fathoms. 



Eegd. Nos. 11675, 13108, 13436, 13644-13646. 



Dysommopsis, Alcock. 



Dysommopsis, Alcock, Ann. Mag. Nat. HiBt., Ang. 1891, p. 137. 



Closely related to Di/somnm,irom which it differs, much as Gavialiceps differs 

 from Nemichthys, in the following particulars : — 



The vent is situated nearly three-quarters of a head-length behind the gill- 

 opening, and there are no pectoral fins : the dorsal fin begins some way behind 

 the giU-opening. 



154. Dysom/mopsis tmicipara, Alcock. 



Dysommopis muciparus, Alcock, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., Aug. 1891, p. 137. 



Head a Httle inflated in the branchial region, tapering anteriorly ; its length 



a little more than one-eighth of the total. The vent lies with the genital pore 



in an unpigmented circular depression, which is situated at a distance from the 



gill-opening equal to the length of the post-rostral portion of the head ; the tail, 



25 



