Holt and Caldeewood — Report on the Rarer Fishes. 469 



specimens, is the rather sudden rise of the dorsal profile from behind the head to 

 the anterior dorsal fin. Our figure shows that this is very well marked in 

 specimen A, and it is equally conspicuous in X. In both these, the greatest height 

 of the body thus attained at the level of the anterior dorsal ray is equal to the 

 length of the head ; but in our smaller examples the rise of the profile becomes 

 less abrupt, and the greatest height of the body relatively less. In the specimen 

 C the height is perhaps even less than is usual in examples of the same size, since 

 it is relatively less than in D. 



Fins. — The short stout spine, which exists at the commencement of the first 

 dorsal in all Macruri, is especially well-developed in Giinther's sub-genus Ma- 

 crurus, and always projects through the skin. Hence that author speaks of the 

 barbs as existing on the '* second'^ ray, and apparently counts the anterior spine 

 in enumerating the formula, though he omits it from all consideration in Cory- 

 phsenoides, and locates the barbs on the " first " ray in that sub-genus. The " Chal- 

 lenger" type specimens of M. cequalis are therefore credited with twelve rays in this 

 fin. Adopting the same method of reckoning we find a variation of from 10 to 

 13 rays in the seven West of Ireland specimens, but 12 is the number which occurs 

 most frequently; and the last few rays are in all cases so minute and rudimentary 

 that a variation in their number presents no difficulty in the way of specific 

 identity. The barbed ray is imperfect in all the specimens, but appears to have 

 had about the same relative length throughout the series, viz. one not quite equal 

 to that of the head. The barbs are absent from the extreme basal region of the 

 ray, as in figure 1, in which respect our specimens appear to differ from the type, 

 if the latter is represented* with absolute accuracy in this rather unimportant 

 detail. The point at which the second dorsal commences is indistinct in the 

 smaller specimens, but appears to be much the same as in the larger, viz. at a dis- 

 tance from the snout somewhat less than half the length of the head. So far as 

 the membrane of the anal fin is concerned, our figure is a restoration, as very little 

 of it is left in the actual specimen, though the rays, about 104 in number, are in a 

 fair state of preservation. In specimen B, which, as has already been stated, 

 exhibits a simulated caudal fin, the rays of this structure are, as usual, considerably 

 longer than those of the adjacent part of the anal fin. 



It is evident that all the Irish examples originally possessed an outer pelvic 

 ray produced into a filament, though this is now imperfect on one side or the other 

 in most examples ; and, in the rest, on both sides. When perfect it extends 

 beyond the origin of the few anterior anal rays. In the type specimens this ray 

 was "not, or but slightly produced,! " a description which the frequent imperfec- 

 tion of the slender filamentous portion renders quite compatible with the condition 

 in the Irish examples. A more serious difficulty is the discrepancy in the number 



* " Chall.," vol. xxii., pi. xxxii., fig. C. f Griinther, op. cit., p. 135, 



