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XLII. Additional Observations on Alepisaurus ferox. By the Rev. R. T. Lowe, M.A., 
Corr. Memb. Z.S. 
Communicated June 23, 1835. 
EARLY in the month of April last, a third specimen of Alepisaurus ferox was caught 
by a fisherman off the village of Camera de Lobos, a little to the west of Funchal, on 
the south coast of Madera. Having beforehand offered a reward for one, sufficient to 
ensure its preservation from injury or mutilation, I obtained possession of this individual, 
a few hours only after its capture, in a state of great perfection. 1 am thus enabled to 
offer to the Society, along with this more perfect specimen itself, some important addi- 
tions to my own former brief remarks upon this highly interesting genus, and my friend 
Mr. Bennett’s more detailed description of its external characters. These additions 
relate chiefly to parts, which were either so mutilated in both the former specimens as 
to preclude altogether any attempt at delineation or description, or so fragile as proba- 
bly to leave a wide field open for revision and correction to subsequent observers. 
The body is thickest from the end of the first dorsal fin to the caudal, towards the 
root of which it is rounded, and somewhat thicker than deep. Proceeding forwards, it 
becomes gradually deeper, but not thicker, to the edge of the operculum ; its deepest 
part being close behind the pectoral fins. The head is also much compressed and elon- 
gated, measuring, from the tip of the lower jaw to the hinder edge of the operculum, be- 
tween one ninth and one tenth of the total length of the fish from the tip of the lower 
jaw to the extreme point of the upper lobe of the tail!: its depth at the posterior end 
of the cranium is less than one half its length, not measuring the branchiostegous mem- 
brane ; and a little more, including the same. The general depth of the head and fore 
part of the body diminishes very gradually from the pectoral fins, or first ray of the 
dorsal fin, forwards ; and the general thickness of the head, which is greatest close be- 
hind the eyes, and exactly equals the greatest thickness of the body at the root of the 
tail, is rather more than one third of its length. The tip of the upper jaw is strongly 
retuse or emarginate. The whole head is unarmed, smooth, and with a very gelatinous 
appearance. ‘‘The appearance of a double row of lengthened tubercles,” produced by 
a series of small chain-like bones beneath the skin, was not noticed in the present spe- 
cimen when recent ; neither was it in the former until after immersion in alcohol. I 
believe this character does not become visible before the collapse or contraction of the 
integuments and muscles consequent to such immersion. An angular raised bony ridge, 
accompanied by a series of pores, extends beneath and round the hinder half of the 
orbit. A row of pores also runs along the side of the lower jaw, close beneath the lower 
edge of the dentary bone. 
1 This decrement of proportion from the former measurement of one seventh is owing to the perfect condi- 
tion of the tail in the present specimen. 
