112 NEW FISHES FROM PACIFIC COAST GILBERT. 



posterior uostril. Xo other spiues ou head. Gill opeuings wide, cou- 

 tiuued forwards to below i)osterior margin of orbit, the merabraues 

 wholly free from the isthmus. Gill-rakers short but not very broad, 

 about half length of pupil, only two or three developed immediately in 

 front of angle of arch. 



Dorsal beginning over or slightly behind middle of pectorals, the 

 distance from its origin to occiput equaling or somewhat exceeding 

 distance of latter from tip of snout. Dorsal and anal fully united to 

 caudal. The caudal has a base of appreciable width, bearing about 

 twelve close-set rays, which extend much beyond tips of last dorsal and 

 anal raj's. Origin of anal nearer snout than base of caudal. 



Ventrals slender, each consisting of a single ray, inserted very near 

 together, under anterior portion of opercle, their length about equaling 

 that of maxillary. Pectorals with about twenty-three rays, evenly 

 rounded behind, their length 1§ in head. 



Scales very small, cycloid, regularly imbricated, in about one hundred 

 and thirty-five transverse series. The nape and belly are scaled, as is 

 also the head, excepting snout, mandible, suborbital, and sometimes 

 interorbital areas. 



Color: Dusky olive, the ventrals white, the other fins black, at least 

 on distal i)ortions. Opercles, gill membranes, sides and top of snout, 

 and posterior portion ot abdomen, blue black. The snout Hushed with 

 dark ruby red in life. Lining membrane of mouth and gill cavity, and 

 peritoneum, jet-black. 



Four specimens, the longest ii inches in length, from Stations 2909, 

 2925, and 293G, in 205 to 359 fathoms. 



78. Neobythites stelliferoides sp. uov. 



Head 4 to 4} in length ; depth, 5 to 5^. D. 95, A. 82. Scales in 

 about one hundred and ten transverse rows. Physiognomy strikingly 

 like that of Stelliferus. Mouth large, oblique, the lower jaw included, 

 maxillary reaching well beyond orbit, half length of head. 



Teeth uuiform, small, in narrow bands, those on vomer in a J\^ 

 shaped patch ; a well-developed band on palatines ; tongue smooth, a 

 well-developed deutigerous crest ou median line behind it. No barbel 

 at symphysis. 



Snout short, bluntly rounded, about equaling diameter of orbit, 

 slightly overhanging mouth, 5 in head ; interorbital width, 4. Upper 

 limb of preopercle extending obliquely downwards and backwards, 

 largely adnate, the angle produced into a free membranous flap which 

 entirely conceals the narrow interoperclC; and bears no spines. 



The structure of the gill-i3ap does not appear to have been correctly 

 interpreted. The opercle is strong, but of small extent, forking at its 

 base, one branch continued straight backwards as a strong spine, the 

 second a narrow tlat process downwards and somewhat backwards, 

 parallel with and little distant from margin of preopercle. Filling the 



