Mr. A. Alcock on Indian Bathjhial Fishes. 359 



ray ; the caudal is completely divided down to its base into 

 two long feathery lobes. The small ventrals, which arise 

 midway between the base of the pectoral and the origin of 

 tiie anal, reach rather more than halfway to the latter point. 



Stomach siphonal ; a row of four stout pyloric cteca; 

 intestine slightly coiled, with its terminal end enlarged and 

 thick-walled. 



Colours : head and eyes jet-black ; body and fins greyish 

 black. 



A single specimen (a mature male), nearly 7 inches long, 

 from Station 132, 475 fathoms. 



Xenodermichthys, Giinther. 



20. Xenodermichthys Guenthei'i^ sj). n. (PI. XVIII. fig. 3.) 



B. 6. D. circa 15. A. circa 14. V. 6? P. 5? 



Body elongate, compressed, covered with a thick scaleless, 

 longitudinally- wrinkled, black skin, in which scattered 

 granular yellowish-coloured nodules are imbedded. The 

 dorsal and anal profiles are symmetrically similar in life. 

 The length of the head is slightly over two sevenths and the 

 height of the body immediately behind the gill-opening 

 slightly under one sixth of the total without the caudal. 



The obtuse snout, surmounted by an acutely-pointed 

 tubercle which projects from the prominent symphysis of the 

 lower jaw, is not quite equal in length to the diameter of the 

 circular eye. The eyes, which in life encroach upon the 

 dorsal profile, measure between one fourth and two sevenths 

 of the length of the head, and are about two thirds of a 

 diameter apart. 



The mouth-cleft is oblique, and the jaws are even in front, 

 except for the symphysial tubercle on the mandible. The 

 prem axillae, which form on each side nearly one half the 

 extent of the margin of the upper jaw, are armed with a row 

 of minute close-set teeth, as are also the maxilla?, which have 

 the typical Alepocephaloid structure and which reach to the 

 vertical through the posterior border of the orbit, and the 

 broad scapula-shaped mandible; no teeth on the palatines or 

 vomer. 



The gill-cleft is extremely wide, extending forwards almost 

 to the mandibular symphysis and upwards almost to the post- 

 tem))oral region ; the opercle appears to be perfect, and, 

 together with the branch iostegal rays, is enveloped in a thick 

 membranous skin, as in Alepocephalus • four gills, with 



