144 THE VOYAGE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGER. 



North of the Kermadec Islands, Station 171 ; depth, 600 fathoms. One specimen, 

 14 inches long. 



In one of these specimens the tail tapers to a fine point, as is normal in Macruroids, 

 and in the other the mutilated extremity bears a pseudo-caudal fin composed of several 

 rays. As in all deep-sea fishes with large muciferous cavities and thin flexible bones, 

 the form and outlines of the head are liable to shrinking in preserved specimens. 



Subsrenus Chalinurus. 

 Chalinura, Goode and Bean. 



Macrurus leptolepis (PI. XX XL). 



Corxjphsmmdes leptolepis, Giinth., Aun. and Mag. Nat. Hist., 1877, vol. xx. p. 441. 



D. 19. P. 18. V. 9. 



Head compressed. The snout is rather long, but its front portion projects but 

 slightly beyond the mouth, which is almost anterior. The eye is comparatively small, 

 rather more than one-half the length of the snout, or one-seventh of the length of the 

 head and three-fifths of the width of the interorbital space. Mouth wide, lateral, 

 extending to below the hind margin of the eye. The teeth of the outer series of the upper 

 jaw are widely set and much stronger than those of the villiform band. Maudibulary 

 teeth in a single series. Barbel as long as the eye. The prseoperculum with the hind 

 margin excised, and with the angle rounded and produced backwards, naked ; its lower 

 / margin is not toothed. 



Scales thin and deciduous ; most with five or seven radiating keels, some, especially 

 on the back, nearly or quite smooth. There are seven scales in a transverse series 

 between the first dorsal and the lateral line. Those on the gill-cover and in front of 

 the ventral fins are quite smooth ; the front part of the snout and the lower half of the 

 infraorbital region scaleless. Second dorsal spine slightly produced, with barbs in front, 

 which are rather distantly arranged. The second dorsal fin commences at a short 

 distance behind the first. The outer ventral ray produced into a long filament. 

 Distance between vent and isthmus equal to the length of the head. 



The single specimen is of a dirty whitish colour. 



Habitat. — Off the coast of Brazil. 



Off Pernambuco, Station 122 ; depth, 350 fathoms. One specimen,^ 18 inches long. 



1 1 formerly referred some specimens from the Pacific and Japan to the same species, but I think now that they 

 can be specifically distinguished on account of the shorter snout. 



