Indian Deep-sea Dredging. 31 



Body and tail compressed ; the lieight of the former is 

 nearly one fifth the total, with the caudal. Operculum with 

 a sharp spine above, preoperculum with three flat spines 

 radiating from its angle. 



Snout broad and rounded, not overhanging the jaw ; its 

 length, which is equal to the major diameter of the eye or to 

 the width of the convex interorbital space, is contained about 

 4^ times in that of the head. The anterior nostril is a small 

 foramen near the tip of the snout, the posterior is a moderate- 

 sized elliptical opening in front of the angle of the eye. 



Cleft of mouth wide, oblique ; the dilated scaly extremity 

 of the maxilla reaches half an eye-length behind the vertical 

 through the posterior border of the orbit ; the lower jaw is 

 included within the upper in repose, and has a large pore on 

 either side of the sympliysis. Villiform teeth in bands in the 

 jaws, palatines, and vomer. 



Gill-opening wide ; pharyngo-branchial membrane partially 

 pigmented ; eleven long gill-rakers on the outer side of the 

 first branchial arch, besides small ones above and below ; 

 pseudobranchice reduced to two small pinnules. 



Body and entire head, including even part of the branchio- 

 stegal membranes, covered with small adherent scales, of 

 which there are fo^r rows between the base of the dorsal tin 

 and the lateral line, which is a distinct poriferous groove 

 ending in the posterior fourth of the tail. 



Dorsal and anal fins invested in a thick fold of integument, 

 which is scaly in its basal half. The caudal, which is nearly 

 half the length of the head^ is adherent to the other vertical 

 fins at its base only. Pectorals very troad^ with fleshy scaly 

 bases, pointed, slightly longer than the postrostral portion of 

 the head ; the lowermost six or seven rays are incompletely 

 detached from the rest of the fin and from each other at their 

 bases, and are produced each into a long free filament, of 

 which the longest (uppermost) in large specimens is twice the 

 length of the fin, Yentrals separated by a considerable 

 interval ; each consists of two separate stout filaments, the 

 outer of which is the longer and exceeds in length the post- 

 orbital portion of the head. 



Parietal peritoneum black ; stomach siphonal ; intestine 

 long and coiled in several wide loops ; no pyloric cseca ; an 

 air-bladder. 



Colours in life : — Chocolate, posterior third of tail, including 

 the vertical fins in that space, black ; caudal fin and pectoral 

 filaments milk-white. 



Five specimens, the largest nearly 8 inches long, from 

 Station 115, 188 to 220 fathoms. 



