388 Mr. A. Alcock on the Bathylial Fishes 



its width four fifths of its height ; all the bones strong. 

 Snout as long as the eye, which is nearly one fifth of the 

 length of the head, broad, rounded, and not overhanging the 

 jaws. Supraorbital margin sharp ; interorbital fiat from side 

 to side, in width equal to three half-diameters of the eye. 

 Operculum with a strong horizontal bony stay, ending in a 

 long spine, and with an obliquely vertical stay not ending in a 

 distinct spine. Preoperculum with three radiating flat spines 

 at its angle. Nostrils large and open, their longer diameter, 

 which in the anterior is nearly horizontal, in the posterior 

 nearly vertical, is equal to half the diameter of the eye. Cleft 

 of mouth oblique, its gape wide. Tlie dilated scaly extre- 

 mity of the maxilla reaches half a diameter of the eye behind 

 the posterior border of the orbit. The lower jaw is included 

 within the upper and has a large open pore on each side 

 behind the symphysis. Narrow bands of villiform teeth in 

 the jaws and palatines and in a V-shaped patch on the vomer. 

 About eleven gill-rakers nearly three fourths the length of 

 the eye along the outer edge of the first arch ; elsewhere they 

 are short and truncated. Head and body covered with small, 

 thin, smooth scales. The lateral line runs six rows of scales 

 below the dorsal fin and ends in the last tliird of the tail. 

 The vertical fins are invested by the integument, but are not 

 scaly ; the dorsal is the higher, and begins behind the vertical 

 tlirough the root of the pectoral, the distance of the origin of 

 the anal from the same point being equal to the length of the 

 head without the snout. The caudal is nearly half as long 

 as the head and very narrow ; its base only is adherent to the 

 vertical fins. 



The pectoral, which has a broad fleshy base, is slightly 

 longer than the head without the snout ; its eight to ten lower 

 rays are stronger than the others, detached, and free throughout, 

 decreasing in length from above doAvnwards, the longest 

 being one third longer than the fin. I'he ventrals are bifid 

 filaments, arising in advance of the vertical from the posterior 

 edge of the operculum, and one third tlie length of the head. 



Colours in life : — " Head slate-coloured, body uniform dirty 

 green-chocolate, the vertebral line showing through lake- 

 coloured " {Dr. G. M. Giles). 



Parietal peritoneum black ; stomach siphonal, with a bul- 

 bous pyloric portion ; a few rudimentary villii'orm pyloric 

 creca. Air-bladder moderate. Many of the specimens with 

 gravid ovaries and apparently mature ova. 



Average length 6^ inches. 



Hah. Bay of Bengal, lat. 20° 17' 30'' N., long. 88° 50' E., 

 193 fathoms; temperature 52° Fahr. 



