390 Mr. A. Alcock on the Bathybial Fishes 
culate. A broad bridge of loose skin connects the gill-cover 
with the base of the pectoral fin. Integument loose, thin but 
tough, covered along the flanks of the body only with minute, 
membranous, irregular, non-imbricating scales. Lateral line, 
if present, only on the anterior part of the trunk. Vertical 
fins confluent with the caudal, which is pointed and half as 
long as the head; the dorsal begins behind the vertical 
through the base of the pectoral, the anal a head-length 
and a quarter behind the same level. Pectoral with a thick, 
fleshy, free base, constituting one third the entire extent of 
the fin. Ventrals simple filaments arising in the vertical 
from the posterior border of the preoperculum. 
Colours in life:— Head dark chocolate ; body light 
chocolate, with minute white spots along its sides” (Dr. 
Giles). 
Abdominal cavity large; stomach siphonal; no pyloric 
ceca, An air-bladder. 
Two specimens, both females with gravid ovaries, one 3 
inches, the other 4 inches long. 
Hab. Bay of Bengal, lat. 20° 17’ 30” N., long. 88° 50’ E., 
193 fathoms. 
GLYPTOPHIDIUM, gen. nov. 
Allied to Bathyonus. 
Head large, body compressed, with a long tapering tail. 
Scales deciduous and very thin. Bones of head soft and 
cavernous, with prominent outstanding crests. Operculum 
small, with one feeble spine. Snout obtuse. Jaws equal in 
front. Mouth wide. Villiform teeth in narrow bands in the 
jaws, palatines,and vomer. No barbel. Hyes large. Caudal 
free. Ventrals simple filaments. Gulls four, with short 
lamine. Branchiostegals eight. Pseudobranchiw. Pyloric 
appendages small. 
Glyptophidium argenteum, sp. nov. 
Bess 9d. A (o. WWxeires 15s? P2545 Ve te 
Head and body compressed, tail long and tapering, with a 
long, narrow, free caudal. Length of head nearly 43, maxi- 
mum body-height 54 in the total (caudal included). In spirit 
nine frill-like, membranous, longitudinal crests stand out on 
the head, namely an interrupted median one from snout to 
occiput, and on each side a supraorbital, a temporal, an infra- 
orbital, and a submandibular. Snout as long as the eye, or 
4} in the head, broad, rounded, and not overlapping the equal 
