of the Bay of Bengal cc. 383 
BREPHOSTOMA, gen. nov. 
Soft tissues, except the dermal productions, rather delicate. 
Head large, quite unarmed. Body low, rather elongate, with 
large ctenoid scales. Mouth small, oblique, weak. ‘Teeth 
entirely absent. Eyes large, lateral. Two dorsal fins, the 
spinous the less developed; anal similar to the soft dorsal ; 
ventrals thoracic, with one spine and five rays. Gill-opening 
very wide; seven branchiostegals; pseudobranchiw. No anal 
papilla. No air-bladder. Long pyloric ceca, in moderate 
number. 
Brephostoma Carpentert, sp. nov. 
Bote Dsb/pye Aste, late30:, ¢ 1. trod: 
Soft tissues, except the dermal productions, rather delicate. 
Body low, rather elongate and compressed, gently diminishing 
from the shoulder to the base of the caudal. Head pyramidal, 
entirely unarmed; cranial bones, but not the other head- 
bones, firm. Snout short, broad, depressed, wedge-like, barely 
two thirds of the diameter of the eye in length. Eyes lateral, 
large, circular, their diameter more than one third the leneth 
of the head. Supraorbital margin in the dorsal profile. Pre- 
orbital a broad triangular plate, almost overlapping the close 
mouth. 
Infraorbitals apparently not articulating with the preoper- 
culum. Nostrils small. Mouth lateral, small, its cleft 
oblique, barely reaching to the level of the anterior border of 
the orbit. Jaws weak, edentulous, but with semicartilaginous 
cutting-edges, that of the lower jaw the more prominent and 
ending just inside the angle of the mouth in an oval plate. 
The lower jaw closes inside the upper, except anteriorly, where 
it projects slightly; its rami are so broad that their lower 
edges are in contact with each other through the greater part 
of their extent. Vomer and palatines edentulous. ‘Tongue 
free, smooth. Floor of the mouth black. No barbels. Guill- 
cover complete, its constituent bones almost membranous and 
quite unarmed ; the preoperculum with a doubleedge. Seven 
branchiostegals. Gull-openings very wide, the gill-membranes 
entirely separate. Four gills, with well-developed lamine. 
Four gill-clefts. Large pseudobranchie. Gill-rakers of the 
outside of the first arch numerous, close-set, and long, else- 
where very short. Gill-chamber black. 
‘The entire head and body covered with strong, thick, oblong, 
adherent, imbricating, ctenoid plates, those on the body from 
35 to + inch in their major diameter, those on We opercles and 
7 
