208 



anal fins; these latter are well developed, the dorsal beginnmg immediately 

 behind the gill-opening. No pectorals. 



The stomach forms a cut de sac of great length ; the air-bladder extends a 

 long way behind the vent. 



Colours : dark lavender-grey ; dorsal and anal fins with basal half whitish 

 and free half blackish. 



A ripe female, 22 inches long, from off the Travancore coast, 430 fathoms. 



Regd. No. 'p 



Named after Commander A. Dundas Taylor, formerly of the Indian Navy, 

 the founder and first chief of the present Marine Survey of India. 



Sub-order Plectognathi. 

 Family Sclerodemii. 



Teiacanthodes, Bleeker, 



TruicaiHhodes, Bleeker, Act. Soc. Sc. Indo-Neerl. iii. Japau, iv. p. 37; Gunther, Cat. Fishes, VIII. p. 208. 



Body elevated and compressed, with a short tail ; covered with small spiny 

 scales. No lateral line. Teeth very small, conical, close-set, from 14 to 20 in 

 the upper, and about twenty-two in the lower jaw, in a single series, often with 

 two or three in a second series. Anterior dorsal fin formed by from 4 to 6 

 strong spines. Ventrals formed by a pair of strong spines joined to the pelvic 

 bone, with one or two rudimentary rays. 



Distribution : Japan ; Indian Seas. 



168. Triacanthodes ethiops, Alcock. 



Triacanthodfs elhiops, Alcock, Jouni. As. Sne. Bengal, Vol. LXIII. pt. 2, 189-t. p. 1.37, pi. vii., fig. 6; Illustri- 



TION.S OF THE ZoOLOGV OF THE INVESTIGATOR, FlSHES, PL. XV. FIR 9. 



D. A^. 14-1(3. A. 14. P. 12-13. V. I. 1. C. 12. 



Height of the body a little more than half the total without the caudal. 

 Head and body covered with small spiny scales, which ai'e continued — much 

 reduced in size — on to the basal half of the fin-rays. Jn the young the spinelets 

 of the scales are embedded each in a fleshy papilla. 



Eye very large. 



Spinous dorsal well developed ; the first spine, which is the longest, is 

 rather shorter than the spine of the ventral fin, which is a third the length of the 

 body without the caudal. All the spines are rough with small barbs. 



In the axil of each ventral spine is a small filamentous soft ray. 



