388 Mr. A. Alcock on the Bathybial Fishes 
its width four fifths of its height; all the bones strong. 
Snout as long as the eye, which is nearly one fifth of the 
length of the head, broad, rounded, and not overhanging the 
jaws. Supraorbital margin sharp; interorbital flat from side 
to side, in width equal to three half-diameters of the eye. 
Operculum with a strong horizontal bony stay, ending in a 
long spine, and with an obliquely vertical stay not ending in a 
distinct spine. Preoperculum with three radiating flat spines 
at its angle. Nostrils large and open, their longer diameter, 
which in the anterior is nearly horizontal, in the posterior 
nearly vertical, is equal to half the diameter of the eye. Cleft 
of mouth oblique, its gape wide. The dilated scaly extre- 
mity of the maxilla reaches half a diameter of the eye behind 
the posterior border of the orbit. The lower jaw is included 
within the upper and has a large open pore on each side 
behind the symphysis. Narrow bands of villiform teeth in 
the jaws and palatines and ina V-shaped patch on the vomer. 
About eleven gill-rakers nearly three fourths the length of 
the eye along the outer edge of the first arch ; elsewhere they 
are short and truncated. Head and body covered with small, 
thin, smooth scales. The lateral line runs six rows of scales 
below the dorsal fin and ends in the last third of the tail. 
The vertical fins are invested by the integument, but are not 
scaly ; the dorsal is the higher, and begins behind the vertical 
through the root of the pectoral, the distance of the origin of 
the anal from the same point being equal to the length of the 
head without the snout. The caudal is nearly half as long 
as the head and very narrow ; its base only is adherent to the 
vertical fins. 
The pectoral, which has a broad fleshy base, is slightly 
longer than the head without the snout ; its eight to ten lower 
rays are stronger than the others, detached, and free throughout, 
decreasing in length from above downwards, the longest 
being one third longer than the fin. The ventrals are bifid 
filaments, arising in advance of the vertical from the posterior 
edge of the operculum, and one third the length of the head. 
Colours in life :-—‘ Head slate-coloured, body uniform dirty 
green-chocolate, the vertebral line showing through lake- 
coloured” (Dr. G. M. Giles). 
Parietal peritoneum black ; stomach siphonal, with a bul- 
bous pyloric portion; a few rudimentary villiform pyloric 
ceca. <Air-bladder moderate. Many of the specimens with 
gravid ovaries and apparently mature ova. 
Average length 64 inches. 
Hab. Bay ot Bengal, lat. 20° 17' 30” N., long. 88° 50! E., 
193 tathoms; temperature 52° Fahr. 
