544 Bulletin 47, United States National Museum. 



of eye; lateral line straight, above the median line anteriorly, becoming 

 median on caudal peduncle, the tube-bearing scales being prominent, and 

 about 55 in number ; about 9 rows of scales between dorsal fin and lateral 

 line ; between the latter and anal fin, 8 or 9 rows. 



Head twice as long as greatest height of body, its length contained 

 a little less than 4 times in the standard body length, considerably 

 depressed, scaleless except on the vertex and the preoperculum. Oper- 

 culum (perhaps accidentally) denuded. Snout much produced, almost 

 equal to width of interorbital space, which is convex. Maxillary extend- 

 ing far behind eye, its length equal to postorbital part of head ; mandible 

 projecting beyond upper jaw a distance slightly more than diameter of 

 orbit, with a series of 7 large pores on its lower surface ; several similar 

 pores under eye. Nostrils situated about midway between eye and 

 extremity of snout, small, slit-like, the posterior about twice as large as 

 the anterior one in each pair. 



Dorsal inserted midway between tip of snout and base of middle cau- 

 dal rays, highest in front, the length of the rays diminishing rapidly 

 posteriorly ; apparently no adipose dorsal ; anal similar in shape to 

 the dorsal, the anterior rays being longest, about equal in length to 

 mandible, its distance from the snout about 3 times length of its 

 longest ray , caudal forked, its middle rays f as long as those in the 

 upper caudal lobe ; the lower lobe much prolonged, the lower ray being 

 more than 4 times as long as the middle rays ; its extremity bioken 

 off in our specimen, but apparently it must have been nearly twice as long 

 as the stump which now remains ; pectoral fin normal, inserted close 

 to the opercular flap, its length slightly greater than that of the head 

 (although mutilated), extending beyond origin of dorsal; ventral base 

 entirely in advance of the perpendicular from the origin of the dorsal 

 the inner rays reaching vent, while its outer ray is enormously prolonged, 

 extending far beyond the extremity of the upper caudal lobe, the length 

 of the prolonged ray fully 4 times that of head ; ventrals close together. 



Color brown, the roof of the mouth and inside of the branchiostegal flap 

 black, as well as the operculum and branchiostegal membrane. One speci- 

 men, 15i inches long to the tips of the prolonged ventral rays, was taken 

 by the Blake, at a depth of 1,850 fathoms, at Blake Station CLXXIV, in 

 latitude 24 33' N., longitude 84 23' W. A second example nearly the 

 same size, taken by the Albatross, in latitude 39 3 / lo x/ N. and longitude 

 70 W 45" W., at a depth of 1,537 fathoms. (Goode & Bean.) (grallator, 

 one who walks on stilts.) 



Benthosaurus grallator, GOODE & BEAN, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., xn, No. 5, 168, 188G; GOODE & BEAN, 

 Oceanic Ichth., 62, fig. 73, 1895, Gulf Stream. (Coll. Blake.) 



Family LXXI. BATHYPTEROID^E. 

 Characters of the family included below in those of its single genus : 



253. BATHYPTEROIS, Giinther. 



Balhypterois, GUNTHER, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., 1878, 5th series, n, 183, (longifilis). 

 Synapteretmus, GOODE & BEAN, Oceanic Ichthyology, 64, 1895, (quadrifilis). 



Shape of the body like that of Aulopus. Head of moderate size, 

 depressed in front, with the snout projecting, the large mandible very 



