2596 Bulletin 4.7, United States National Museum. 



able possibility of individual variation in proportions of height to length, 

 and in the number of rays in the dorsal fin, bnt it is a fact well known to 

 ichthyologists that constancy is not to be expected in forms in which the 

 number of vertebra and fin rays has been extended far beyond the normal 

 average. It should also be said that most of the individuals studied have 

 been in very imperfect condition, and also that in many instances the 

 observations have been made by untrained observers, so that it seems 

 doubtful whether there is really more than 1 species to be assigned to the 

 Atlantic fauna. At all events, Gunther, Collett, Liitken, and Day agree 

 in the idea that it is impossible to discriminate between the forms already 

 described, and we follow their lead in considering them all, for the 

 present, as a single species. It is not impossible, of course, that, should 

 better material be obtained, it may be desirable to separate the group 

 into more subspecies, but until this shall be done discrimination leads to 

 confusion rather than to definite knowledge, The fishes belonging to the 

 genus Eegalecus are very remarkable, not only on account of their pecu- 

 liar appearance and structure, but because of their enormous size. They 

 have been known to attain the length of 20 feet, and it is more than 

 probable that they grow very much longer, and that many of the creatures 

 popularly identified with the "sea serpent" are only large individuals of 

 this type. Indeed, it seems quite safe to assign to this group all the so- 

 called "sea serpents" which have been described as swimming rapidly 

 near the surface, with a horse-like head raised above the water, sur- 

 mounted by a mane-like crest of red or brown. The individual which 

 came ashore at Hungry Bay, in Bermuda, in 1860, and which was about 

 17 feet long, was described by the people who saw it before its capture as 

 being very much larger, and as having a head of an immense horse with a 

 flaming red mane." (Goode & Bean.) (rex, king; halec, herring. The 

 species have long been known as " king of the herrings," as have those of 

 Trachyptcrus.) 



2971. BEGALECUS GLESXE ( Ascanins) . 

 (OAB-FisH; SEA SERPENT.) 



Head 16 to 20 ; depth 12 to 24 ; eye 4 to 6 in head ; snout short, truncated. 

 D. 275 to 400 ; P. 11 to 14 ; V. I. Body very elongate. Cleft of mouth ver- 

 tical, the upper jaw very protractile ; jaws minute or absent. Anterior 8 to 

 15 rays of dorsal forming an elevated crest, sometimes in 2 parts, the pos- 

 terior rays with membranaceous tips ; each ventral ray with a lobate mem- 

 branaceous tip ; skin with numerous bo"ny tubercles ; lateral line placed 

 low. Color silvery gray, with a few spots or streaks of darker hue, most 

 numerous anteriorly. Gunther (Challenger Report, xxu, 73 to 76) has 

 in the most painstaking manner brought together a list of the specimens 

 taken in the North Atlantic, as far as they are known to science. He 

 mentions 14 known upon the Scandinavian coasts from 1740 to 1852; 19 on 

 the British coasts from 1759 to 1884 ; 1 in the Mediterranean (he states, 

 however, that about a dozen specimens have been observed in the Medi- 

 terranean); 1 in the Bermudas; 3 at the Cape of Good Hope; 1 in the 

 Indian Ocean, and 5 off the coast of New Zealand. He calls attention to 



