236 WAITE 
REXEA FURCIFERA Waite 
Kine Fisx. 
Rexea furcifera Waite, Proc. N.Z. Inst., 1911, p. 49. 
Plate LIT. 
Stations 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 11, 12, 13, 17, 18, 19, 32, 36, 39, 44 81, 
83, 88, 89, 90, 92, 95. 
Be vii; D, xviii, 15, ios Ab dici4, tik Ve ayant 
C.18 + 8. 
Length of head 3.2, height of body 4.1, and length of caudal 
6.9 in the length. Diameter of eye 4.8, interorbital space 4.6, 
and length of snout 2.4 in the head. 
The head is sub-quadrangular in section, conical and acutely 
pointed, flat above, the edges rounded and a depression between 
the eyes; the latter are almost circular, and lie a trifle nearer 
the opereular margin than the tip of the snout. 
The anterior nostril opens an eye diameter in front of the 
orbit and is directed forward from a horizontal tube, much 
as in the petrels (Tubinares), the posterior nostril lies half-way 
between it and the front margin of the eye: the length of the 
maxillary is half that of the head, its distal extremity is rounded 
and its greatest width is half the diameter of the eye, it 
extends to the anterior fifth of the orbit: the lower jaw 
markedly projects and its extremity forms and completes the 
anterior contour of the head: the tongue is shgehtly roughened: 
gill-rakers are replaced by teeth like those in the jaws; one, two 
or three being developed from the same base; of these bony bases 
there are ten on the upper and seventeen on the lower limb of 
the first arch. Pseudobranchie present. 
Teeth—The maxillary bears about twenty acute flattened 
distantly set teeth, largest in the middle: the vomer has three 
large dagger-like teeth, each with the tip of a similar one at its 
base, possibly destined to replace them: the palatine teeth are 
similar to the maxillary ones but smaller: the two large and 
widely separated teeth at the symphysis of the lower jaw are 
directed upwards and backwards and remain without the upper 
jaw when the mouth is closed: the lateral teeth are much larger 
than those in the maxilla. 
Fins—The first dorsal fin arises within the vertical of the 
opercular margin, the middle spines are longest, a third longer 
than the diameter of the eye: the fins are sub-continuous and 
