304 Mr. A. Alcock on the Batliyhial Fishes 



profile forming a continuous curve synchronous with an arc 

 of a circle of 56° ; its length is 3f in the total measured 

 without the caudal, and just over the greatest height of the 

 body. Snout with the tip formed by a prominent knob at 

 the symphysis of the lower jaw ; its length, including the 

 mandibular element, is less than its breadth and about f the 

 major diameter of the eye. Nostrils large, situated high up, 

 above the anterior angle of the orbit. Eye very large ; its 

 major diameter, which is obliquely ascendant from before 

 backwards, is a little more than ^ the length of the head ; 

 interorbital space gently concave, ^ that diameter of the eye. 



Mouth-cleit wide, approaching the transverse; premaxilla 

 short and slender ; the broad maxilla, composed of three 

 longitudinal plates, of which the innermost (uppermost) is 

 movable, reaches just behind the level of the mid-orbit, and 

 includes the mandible in repose, except anteriorly, where the 

 latter strongly projects. Small, even, acute, uniserial teeth, 

 recurved in the premaxillfe, mandible, palatines, and vomer, 

 procurrent or procurved in the maxillee. Tongue large. A 

 row of pores along the limb of the mandible. 



Gill-openings very wide, the membranes entirely separate ; 

 fourth gill-cleft occluded ; gill-rakers long and close-set on 

 the first three arches, longest on the first. Pseudobranchise 

 large and coarse. Scales large, deciduous, except on the 

 lateral line, where they are adherent and also perforated or 

 bifid. There are pittings in the skin, which look like scale- 

 folds, on the opercles. 



The dorsal tin begins just behind the origin of the ventrals, 

 which are situated in the vertical through the middle of the 

 body measured without the caudal. The anal begins in the 

 vertical through the third dorsal ray. Both these fins have 

 fleshy succulent bases, and the rays increasing in length 

 regularly and steeply to the fourth, and then decreasing as 

 regularly but more gradually to the last. Caudal symmetri- 

 cally forked. Pectorals long and narrow ; their longest rays 

 equal the length of the head behind the anterior nostril, and 

 in repose almost touch the bases of the ventrals. Ventrals 

 broad, reaching slightly beyond the vent. 



Stomach large ; intestine coiled in a spiral ; five or six 

 large pyloric c£eca. 



Colours in the fresh state : — Head uniform deep black, 

 body pinkish brown, fins transparent grey ; oro-pharyngo- 

 branchial membrane and entire peritoneum black. 



A heavy female specimen, 10^ inches long, with gravid 

 ovaries, the mature ova measuring | of an inch in diameter. 



Station 105, 740 fathoms. 



