of the Bay of Bengal &c. 389 



A single specimen, 7j inches long, from tlie AncLaman Sea, 

 east of Port Blair, 271 fathoms, has the abdominal region 

 equal to the length of the head and the ventral filaments half 

 as long as the head. 



Saccogaster, gen. nov. 



Allied to CaUdax. 



Body compressed, little elongate, partly invested by minute, 

 membranous, non-imbricating scales. Abdomen large. Head 

 with loose scaleless skin. Snout a little inflated, not pro- 

 jecting beyond the equal jaws. Bones of the head firm, 

 without spines, the mucous channels well developed but with- 

 out conspicuous external openings. Opercles unarmed. No 

 barbels. Eyes small. Moutli wide. Bands of villiforra 

 teeth in jaws, palatines, and vomer, and an inner row of 

 enlarged teeth in the mandible. Vertical fins confluent with 

 the caudal. Ventrals simple filaments. Four gills ; eight 

 branchiostegals ; no pseudo branchiae. No pyloric casca. 



Saccogaster maculatus, sp. nov. 



B. 8. D. circ. 82. A. circ. 55. P. 18. V. 1. C. 12? 



Head with aspect of ColUchthys ; body deep, with an inflated 

 abdomen abruptly constricted at its junction with the low, 

 compressed, tapering tail. Length of head 3| in the total, 

 three fourths as broad as high, abruptly convex behind the 

 broad depressed interorbital region, covered with a loose 

 scaleless skin. Snout half as. long again as the diminutive 

 eye, broad, depressed, inflated laterally, but not overhanging 

 the jaws. Operculum with a bony stay, not ending in a 

 distinct spine above. Preopercular border full, sloping back- 

 wards, rounded and smooth. Preorbital broad. The eyes, 

 which are deep- set and covered with loose tough skin, are 

 placed far forward, and by the flattening of the fore part of 

 the head occupy an almost superior position, but with a lateral 

 visual axis ; tlieir long diameter is rather less than one ninth 

 the length of the head and less than their distance apart. 

 Nostrils inconspicuous. Cleft of mouth wide and oblique ; 

 the maxilla is half as long as the head, and has a much 

 dilated posterior extremity ; rami of the lower jaw broad, with 

 sharp lower edge. Viliiform teeth in the jaws, palatines, and 

 vomer, and an nuier close-set row of uniformly enlarged teeth 

 in the mandible. Tongue large, thick, and fleshy. Gill- 

 openings very wide, the membranes united at their extreme 

 anterior limit ; gill-lamin£e narrow ; gill-rakers almost tuber- 



