2516 Bulletin ^7, United States National Museum. 



part being the longer. Color uniform grayish brown; fins darker. The 

 type of this species was obtained by the Albatross from Station 2684, off 

 Cape Henlopen, Delaware, in Lat. 39 35' N., Long. 70 54' W., at a depth 

 of 1,106 fathoms. (Goode & Bean.) (Named for Dr. Theodore Gill.) 

 Bassogigas gillii,GooDE & BEAN, Oceanic Ichthyology, 328, tig. 291, 1896, off Cape Hen- 

 lopen, Delaware, in 1,106 fathoms. (Type, Xo. 39417. Coll. Albatross.) 



2888. BASSOGIGAS STELLIFEROIDES (Gilbert). 



Head 4 to 4 in length; depth 5 to 5J. D. 95; A. 82; scales 110. Phy- 

 siognomy strikingly like that of the Sciaenoid genus Stellifer. Mouth 

 large, oblique, the lower jaw included, maxillary reaching well beyond 

 orbit, $ length of head. Teeth uniform, small, in narrow bands, those 

 on vomer in a J~\ -shaped patch; a well-developed band on palatines; 

 tongue smooth, a well-developed dentigerous crest on median line behind 

 it ; no barbel at symphysis. Snout short, bluntly rounded, about equaling 

 diameter of orbit, slightly overhanging mouth, 5 in head; interorbital 

 width 4; upper limb of preopercle extending obliquely downward and 

 backward, largely adnate, the angle produced into a free membrauaceous 

 flap which entirely conceals the narrow interopercle, and bears no spines. 

 The structure of the gill flap does not appear to have been correctly inter- 

 preted. The opercle is strong, but of small extent, forking at its base, 1 

 branch continued straight backward as a strong spine, the second a narrow 

 flat process downward and somewhat backward, parallel with and little 

 distant from margin of preopercle. Filling the deep notch between these 

 2 processes, and forming the greater portion of the gill flap, is the thin 

 membranaceous snbopercle. Branchiostegal rays 7. Gill rakers long and 

 slender, the longest f diameter of orbit, 7 above angle, 13 and about 5 

 rudiments below. Nape midway between front of dorsal and front of eye ; 

 dorsal and anal similar, uniform, low, joined to base of caudal, the latter 

 truncate, projecting well beyond them; ventrals inserted under angle of 

 preopercle, each of a single ray forked to the very base, the 2 branches 

 united by membrane for a distance equaling orbit, the inner filaments 

 being longest, $ longer than head, and extending well beyond front of anal ; 

 pectorals long and narrow, 1| in head ; a narrow membranaceous flap con- 

 necting base of pectorals with upper angle of opercular flap. Scales small, 

 well imbricated, entirely investing body and head, including gular mem- 

 brane and part of gill membranes; lateral line nearly complete, lacking 

 for about -/ lengtt of body, running high, parallel with dorsal outline. 

 Color silvery gray, dusted with coarse black specks, darker along dorsal 

 outline; dorsal and anal with a narrow light streak at base, otherwise 

 dusky, becoming black posteriorly, and with a narrow white margin; 

 caudal black, with a broad white terminal bar; pectorals and ventrals 

 white, with few black specks; peritoneum silvery white; mouth white 

 anteriorly, its posterior portion and gill cavity jet-black. Pacific Ocean, 

 off" coast of Lower California. Many specimens from Albatross Station 

 2996, in 112 fathoms. Length 7 inches. (Stellifer, a genus of Scicenidcv ; 

 siSog, resemblance.) 



Neobyihites Stellifer aides, GILBERT, Proc, U. S. Nat. Mua. 1891, 112, off Lower California. 

 (Type, Xo. 44383. Coll. Dr. Gilbert.) 



