of the Bay of Bengal. 205 



extreme posterior limit, but no air-bladder and no pyloric 

 ajtpondages. 



There arc fourteen abdominal and twenty-four caudal 

 vertebra}. 



Colours in life : — Blotchy violet-black to black ; gill-nicni- 

 branes and opercles black ; oral cavity, but not the peri- 

 toneum, darkly pigmented. 



The enormous gape, the loosely articulated jaw-bones, and 

 the structure of the abdomen and stomach would ])crmit the 

 deglutition of a relatively immense object. 



When brought on board the fish was a good deal ruptured, 

 its belly was distended and pendent, and several ounces of 

 grumous chyme escaped from a tear in the tail. 



JIah. Vide Station 102. 



Total length G^ inches. One specimen. 



Uranoscopus, C. & V. 



7. Uranoscopus crassiceps, sp. n. 



Diagnosed at once by the extraordinary size of the head. 



T3. 6. D. 4/i-^. A. 13. C. 15. P. 18. V. 1/5. 



Length of the head 2j in the total including the caudal, 

 its maximum breadth in repose (that is, when the opercles 

 are not extended and expanded for defence) is § the length, 

 its maximum height (and that of the body) is about f the 

 length ; bones of the head massive and rugose ; the jn'corbital 

 much sculptured, with a coarse procurreut spine at its antero- 

 inferior angle; the anterior border of the preoperculum raised 

 and inflated, especially in its middle, with numerous strong 

 ridges radiating from it across the bone upwards, backwards, 

 and downwards, the last ending in four or five procurved 

 s))ines, and a similar spine on the suboperculum ; clavicular 

 sj^ine small, grooved, its length equals the diameter of the 

 orbit ; points of pubic bones projecting forwards as acute 

 spines on each side of the clavicular symphysis. Diameter of 

 the eye not quite one seventh the length of the head ; supra- 

 orbital margin broad, massive, longitudinally grooved. Lips 

 fringed with papillae ; no prelingual filament ; curved, acute 

 (caniniform) teeth, in two rows in the upper, one in the lower 

 jaw and palatines, a second incomplete row at the mandibular 

 symphysis, a patch of small teeth on the vomer. No scales 

 on the throat or anterior part of belly. 



Stomach an enormous sac, which in the specimen dissected 



