PHILIPPINE MACROUROID FISHES—GILBERT AND HUBBS. 377 
region consists largely of a partially inclosed cup, broken up by 
islands to the northward, and communicating with more open bodies 
of water only by narrow channels, much shallower than the depths 
of the Jolo (Sulu) Sea, which in consequence are rendered peculiarly 
warm. The temperature records of depths greater than 400 fathoms 
vary little from 50° F., and nowhere was the temperature found to 
fall as low as 49°, although depths of over 1,000 fathoms were in- 
vestigated.* 
At the northern end of the Philippine subregion, in the China Sea 
off southern Luzon, it was found that the temperatures do not re- 
main warm at greater depths. Here the fauna resembles, in general, 
that of the moderate depths to the southward, and as it contains no 
additional northern elements we consider it a derived portion of 
the Philippine fauna. It is characterized particularly by the ex- 
elusive or nearly exclusive occurrence of Coclorhynchus velifer, C. 
macrolepis, and C. carinifer.2. Of the other species peculiar to the 
Philippine subregion, this northern district shares with the south 
only Coelorhynchus thompsoni, Hymenocephalus striatissimus torvus, 
and Ventrifossa lucifer (one specimen), fishes inhabiting the mod- 
erate depths. The remaining fishes inhabiting the China Sea off 
southern Luzon are not among those peculiar to the Philippine sub- 
region.® — 
To the westward of Japan there lies a sea (Sea of Japan) which is 
surrounded by a rim which is not at any point depressed as much 
as 100 fathoms below the sea level. The straits which connect the 
Sea of Japan with the Pacific are thus above the normal bathy- 
metric range of Macrouroid fishes. This Sea of Japan is geographi- 
cally somewhat analogous to the area of the Philippine subregion 
just discussed, but faunally it differs strikingly in the fact that 
Macrouroid fishes “ were not to be discovered in the Sea of Japan nor 
the Gulf of Tartary, although numerous and successful hauls of 
the trawl were made at the appropriate depths”; but “they were 
found in the Okhotsk Sea and everywhere to the eastward of the 
islands.” 4 
Cc. THE FAST COAST OF MINDANAO. 
The only species obtained in the Pacific Ocean off eastern Min- 
danao is Lymenocephalus barbatulus, unknown elsewhere, but closely 
related to H. papyraceus of Japan. 
1 An unusually heavy degree of parasitism noted among these fishes is probably to be 
correlated with the lack of currents in this comparatively warm inclosed sea. 
27The distribution of Malacocephalus luzonensis differs from any of the others: it is 
known from three specimens from southern Luzon, one from western Luzon (taken with 
intergrades between Hymenocephalus s. striatissimus and H. s. aeger), and one from 
eastern Luzon. 
3 Two species, known also from the East Indies and from off eastern Luzon, are known 
from the Philippine subregion by a single specimen: A specimen of Gadomus introniger 
was dredged off southern Luzon, and one of Lionurus pumiliceps off western Luzon, 
4Gilbert and Hubbs, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. 51, 1916, p. 135. 
