460 Mr. A. Alcock on the Bathyhial Fishes 



apparent ; the branchial arches are weak and flexible, the 

 gill-laminse broad and cut square ; gill-openings of moderate 

 size. No scales. Lateral line in the form of a row of pores 

 following the dorsal curve. Vertical fins fairly developed ; 

 the dorsal begins immediately behind the occiput and the 

 anal immediately behind the fleshy anal clitellum. Pectorals 

 longer than the snout, rounded. 



Colours in life : — " Head and dorsum pale chocolate ; 

 venter silvery slate" {Dr. G. M. Giles). In spirit vertical 

 fins white, lower half of the end of the tail black. 



Body-cavity extending far behind the vent, more than 

 halfway along the tail, lined with silvery peritoneum, speckled 

 with black pigment. Visceral peritoneum colourless. Stomach 

 ca^cal, nearly half the length of the body-cavity ; the pyloric 

 and oesophageal openings almost on the same level. Intes- 

 tine forming a long loop, the convexity of which reaches to 

 the extreme hinder end of the body-cavity. Air-bladder 

 thick-walled, nacreous, trilobed, with a large central and two 

 small lateral lobes, the narrow, thread-like, oesophageal duct 

 springing from the end of one of these. Only the left lobe of 

 the liver developed. 



One specimen, a female with gravid ovaries, 8f inches 

 long. 



Hal. Bay of Bengal, lat. 20° 17' 30" N., long. 88° 51' E., 

 in 193 fathoms. 



Group NUMICHTSTINA. 



Gavialiceps, gen. nov., Wood-Mason, MS. 



Diff^ering from Nemichthys in having the eyes small and in 

 wanting pectoral fins. 



Gavialiceps tceniola, sp. nov., Wood-Mason, MS. 



Body narrow, compressed, ending in a long lash-like tail. 

 Head depressed. Snout in the form of a stout spathulate 

 beak, formed by the jaws and tlie prolongation beyond them 

 of the vomer; the upper segment of the beak overlapping the 

 lower. Two rows of small sharp teeth in each jaw, continued 

 np to the end of the beak, and a long row, extending the 

 whole length of the beak, of larger distant teeth in the vomer. 

 Eyes in diameter about one sixth the snout-length, situated 

 in advance of the angle of the mouth. Gill-openings sepa- 

 rate, extending nearly to the middle line of the abdomen. 

 Vent situated about a head-length and three quarters behind 



