450 Mr. A. xllcock on the Bathyhial Fishes 



LVII. — Natural History Notes from H.M. Indian Marine 

 Survey Steamer ^Investigator ,'' Commander Alfred Carpen- 

 ter, li.N., D.S.O., commanding . — No. lo. On the Bathyhial 

 Fishes of the Bay of Bengal and neighhouring waters, 

 obtained during the seasons 1885-1889. By ALFRED 

 Alcock, M.B., Surgeon-Naturalist to the Survey. 



[Concluded from p. 399.] 



Faniily Scopelidse. 



Bathypterois, Gtlir. 



Bathypterois Guentheri, sp. nov. 



B. 12. D. 13. A. 11. P. 2/6/5. V. 8. C. 20. 

 L. lat. eirc. 55. L. tr. |. 



Body elongate and compressed, its height nearly one sixth 

 of the total, without caudal. Head contained nearly three 

 and a half times in the same measure ; depressed, flat- 

 crowned, as broad as deep. Snout broad, depressed, rounded, 

 duck-bill shaped, with a median intermaxillary notch, into 

 which a strong recurved projection of the very prominent 

 mandible fits ; its length one third that of the head ; its sur- 

 face with numerous large pores. A wide mucous channel 

 with a line of large pores along the under surface of the broad 

 mandibles. Eyes minute, situated near the vertical middle of 

 the maxilla, close to its edge, a snout-length apart ; the orbital 

 margins rounded and inflated. Interorbital space flat from 

 side to side. Nostrils small, superior, far in advance of the 

 eye. Cleft of mouth extremely wide, slightly oblique ,• the 

 maxilla, which has a dilated, abruptly-truncated, hinder end, 

 is nearly two thirds the head-length. Villiform teeth in broad 

 bands on the outer edges of the strong jaw-bones, and in a 

 minute patch on each side of the expanded vomer. Gill-cleft 

 reaching to the fore end of the isthmus ; gill-laminas broadish ; 

 gill-rakers numerous, close-set, long, bristle -like, except on 

 the fourth arch. Body and head, except the jaws and front 

 part of the vertex of the snout, covered with large, thin, 

 smooth scales, those on ths sides of the head rather deciduous, 

 those on its crown enlarged. The caudal and paired fins with 

 one or more extremely stout, rigid, prolonged rays ; the inter- 

 radial membrane of all the fins except the caudal covered 

 with a thick, black, velvety, deciduous integument. The 

 dorsal begins a little in advance of the vertical middle line, 



