460 Mr. A. Alcock on the Bathybial Fishes 
apparent; the branchial arches are weak and flexible, the 
gill-lamine broad and cut square; gill-openings of moderate 
size. No scales. J.ateral line in the form of a row of pores 
following the dorsal curve. Vertical fins fairly developed ; 
the dorsal begins immediately behind the occiput and the 
anal immediately behind the fleshy anal clitellum. Pectorals 
longer than the snout, rounded. 
Colours in life:—“ Head and dorsum pale chocolate ; 
venter silvery slate” (Dr. G. M. Giles). In spirit vertical 
fins white, lower half of the end of the tail black. 
Body-cavity extending far behind the vent, more than 
halfway along the tail, lined with silvery peritoneum, speckled 
with black pigment. Visceral peritoneum colourless. Stomach 
cecal, nearly half the length of the body-cavity ; the pyloric 
and cesophageal openings almost on the same level. Intes- 
tine forming a long loop, the convexity of which reaches to 
the extreme hinder end of the body-cavity. Air-bladder 
thick-walled, nacreous, trilobed, with a large central and two 
small lateral lobes, the narrow, thread-like, esophageal duct 
springing from the end of one of these. Only the left lobe of 
the liver developed. 
One specimen, a female with gravid ovaries, 8? inches 
ong. 
Hab. Bay of Bengal, lat. 20° 17’ 30’’ N., long. 88° 51’ E., 
in 193 fathoms. 
Group Neurconrayina. 
GAVIALICEPS, gen. nov., Wood-Mason, MS. 
Differing from Nemichthys in having the eyes small and in 
wanting pectoral fins. 
Gavialiceps teniola, sp. nov., Wood-Mason, MS. 
Body narrow, compressed, ending in a long lash-like tail. 
Head depressed. Snout in the form of a stout spathulate 
beak, formed by the jaws and the prolongation beyond them 
of the vomer; the upper segment of the beak overlapping the 
lower. Two rows of small sharp teeth in each jaw, continued 
up to the end of the beak, and a long row, extending the 
whole length of the beak, of larger distant teeth in the vomer. 
Eyes in diameter about one sixth the snout-length, situated 
in advance of the angle of the mouth. Gill-openings sepa- 
rate, extending nearly to the middle line of the abdomen. 
Vent situated about a head-length and three quarters behind 
