Indian Dee^t-sea Dredgiiuj. 133 



anal raj. Ventrals small or rudimentary, in close contact 

 with one another ; the short pubic bones, which are in close 

 apposition throughout, are attached to the under surface of 

 the clavicle above tlie coracoid articulation and pass down- 

 wards with such very slight obliquity that the ventral fins 

 come to have a subjugular position. 



Stomach large, with a cajcal sac and a bunch of large 

 pyloric appendages. A large air-bladder, from which poste- 

 riorly a comparatively long pneumatic duct passes forwards 

 and downwards to the fundus of the (distended) stomach. 



Nine abdominal and twenty-two caudal vertebree. 



Colours silvery grey, becoming black on dorsum. 



Four specimens (one male and three females), all sexually 

 mature and with the reproductive glands distended, from 

 Station 115, 188 to 220 fathoms. The male is 6"5 inches, 

 the largest female 8 inches in length. 



The stomachs of all four distended with small Penaeids. 



The abnormal position of the ventral fins caused me long 

 to hesitate before bringing this fish within the Physostomous 

 relationship, notwithstanding its unmistakable external and 

 internal Clupeoid characters. It is to be borne in mind, how- 

 ever, that the ventral fins are, if not exactly rudimentary, at 

 any rate very much degenerated organs — the degeneration of 

 the ventrals, the shortening of the abdomen, and tiie conspic- 

 uous hypertrophy of the pectorals being perhaps directly 

 interconnected changes. In this case there is nothing more 

 remarkable in the fact of a degenerated organ having under- 

 gone a slight change in position than there is in such an 

 organ finally disappearing, as it has in another Clupeoid, 

 namely Fristigasier. 



Bathyclupea is further remarkable as being the first 

 Clupeoid reported from the deep-sea ; its structural modifica- 

 tions are typically bathybial. 



The position of Bathycliqyea in the family Clupeidas appears 

 to be between the Clupeina and the Dussumieriina. 



Family AlepocephalidaB. 



Alepocephalus, Risso. 



46. Alepocephalus hicolor, sp. u. 



B. 6. D. 21. A. 28. P. 10. V. 8. L. lat. 62. 



L. tr.« '. 



y 



The length of the low head is a little over one fourth, the 

 * At level of vent. 



