Indian Deep-sea Dredging. 131 



4f5. Bathyclupea Iloskynii, s{3. u. 

 B. 7. D. 10. A. 33. P. 29. V. 6. L. lat. ciic. 38. 



Soft tissues fragile, bones thin. 



Head and body compressed ; the height of the latter almost 

 exactly equals the length of the former, which is one third the 

 total without the caudal. The median abdominal line is 

 neither keeled nor serrated. The mucous cavities of the skull 

 are large. 



Snout rectangular, formed in front by the lower jaw, which 

 in repose is almost vertical ; its length, including the man- 

 dibular element, is not quite equal to the diameter of the 

 large lateral circular eye, which is one third the length of the 

 head ; the width of the flat interorbital space is half the 

 diameter of the eye. Nostrils small, almost superior. 



Mouth wide, its cleft antero-lateral and nearly vertical. 

 The upper jaw, the length of which is two thirds that of the 

 head, lias five sixths of its margin formed by the premaxillai 

 and one sixth by the maxilla; on each side. The last arc 

 formed of three parallel longitudinal plates, of which the 

 posterior is slightly movable. Lower jaw excavated beneath 

 by a deep wide mucous chaimel. Villiform teeth in narrow 

 bands in the preraaxillaj, mandible, and palatine, and in an 

 inconspicuous V-shaped patch on the vomer. Tongue large, 

 bilobed. 



Gill-cleft very wide, the membranes entirely ununited ; 

 all the opercular bones well-developed, and the horizontal 

 border of the ])reoperculum sharply serrated ; four gills ; the 

 middle gill-rakers on the outer side of the first arch consider- 

 ably elongated; pseudobranchiaj large. 



Head naked. 



Body and nape covered with large cycloid scales, decidu- 

 ous everywhere except on the lateral line. In the largest 

 specimen a scale from the flank measures 10 millim. in the 

 vertical and 7"5 millim. in the antero-posterior diameter. 

 Each scale of the lateral line has a deep pocket on its inner 

 side which opens externally by numerous tine pores. 



The dorsal fin commences almost exactly midway between 

 the tip of the snout and the tip of the upper lobe of the caudal 

 fin ; the length of its base is equal to that of the snout ; it is 

 roughly triangular and its height is a fifth greater than the 

 diameter of the eye. No adipose dorsal. The anal com- 

 mences about an eye-diameter in advance of the dorsal and 

 extends to within a very short distance (equal to three 

 fourths of an eye-diameter) of the base of the caudal. Caudal 



9* 



