of the Baij of Bengal &c. 393 



length of the head and exceeding the width of the flattened 

 interorbital space. Nostrils very large, the anterior separated 

 from the posterior by a broad loop of skin. Cleft of mouth 

 hardly extending behind the anterior border of the orbit. 

 Barbel as long as the eye. A broad band of villiform teeth 

 in each jaw and in the upper an outer row of considerably 

 enlarged teeth. Gill-larainjB broad. Head and body covered 

 with spinigerous imbricating scales, those on the body of a 

 uniform moderate size, with about fifteen longitudinal parallel 

 rows of spinelets, the last in each row projecting far beyond 

 the edge of the scale ; and towards the distal end of each 

 interspace between these rows is a short series of similar 

 spinelets only slightly projecting beyond the edge of the scale. 

 Eight series of scales between the first dorsal fin and the 

 lateral line. Dorsal fins separated by an interval equal to 

 the length of the base of the first. Second dorsal spine as 

 long as the head, with fifteen equal semirecumbent barbs 

 along its front edge. Outer ventral ray produced into a long- 

 filament. 



Colours in spirit : — Sepia-brown ; first dorsal, pectoral, and 

 ventral fins black, anal edged with black. 



Twenty-two long vermiform pyloric cceca. A large air- 

 bladder. 



One specimen, 8 inches long, the tail a healed " stump." 



Hah. Bay of Bengal, south by west of North Sentinel 

 Island (Andamans), in 130 to 250 fathoms. 



Macrurus brevirosfns, sp. no v. 



B. 6. D. 12. P. 19. V. 10. 



Snout conspicuously short, with a prominent median mar- 

 ginal tubercle. The horizontal diameter of the eye is nearly 

 one third the length of the head, nearly twice the length of 

 the snout without the nasal tubercle, and much in excess of 

 the width of the interorbital space. Mouth inferior, its cleft 

 just reaching the level of the anterior border of the orbit. 

 Barbel slender, not so long as the eye. Teeth in a broad 

 villiform band in each jaw, and in the upper two outer rows 

 of enlarged teeth, those in the outermost row regular and 

 much enlarged, those in the more internal row irregular and 

 less enlarged. Gill-membranes broadly united. Scales small 

 on the head, uniformly large on the body. A scale from the 

 abdomen has more than twenty approximated rows of close- 

 set conical spinelets, of which five arrangements can be easily 

 distinguished, according to the point from which the scale is 



