1866.] DR. A. CARTE ON THE GENUS CHIASMODON. 35 



Tambaki, and yet not having the necessary character of a fish, in 

 fins being absent. 



" In the Upper Amazons, where I had a boat of my own and spent 

 weeks on the lakes and still waters in the dry season, I could not 

 get any information about the ' Tamhaki-mbotja? It seems there- 

 fore to be confined to the great lakes about the Tapajos and the Ma- 

 deira rivers. If hands are so scarce in that part as they were in my 

 time, I do not know how a foreigner is to obtain a boat's crew to go 

 in search of it." 



Dr. J. Murie read some notes on the Markhore (Capra megaceros), 

 chiefly based upon a specimen of this animal which had recently 

 died in the Society's Gardens. Dr. Murie also gave some account 

 of the morbid appearances he had observed in a Chimpanzee which 

 had lately died in the Menagerie. 



The following papers were read : — 



1. Notes on the Genus Chiasmodon. By Alexander Carte, 

 M.D., M. A. Univ. Dub., M.R.I.A., F.L.S., &c. 



(Plate II.) 



In the month of August 1865 I received from Commodore Sir 

 Leopold M c Clintock, R.N., a specimen of a fish which had been 

 taken near the Island of Dominica, about which he writes : — 



" Dr. Imray, of Castries, Dominica, has given me a specimen of 

 which the two sketches enclosed may afford you some idea. A small 

 fish with teeth inclined backwards swallowed a much larger one, and 

 whilst helplessly floating was picked up and given to Dr. Imray. 

 The swallowed fish was dead, the swallower still alive ; the abdo- 

 minal integument of the latter has been stretched enormously, and 

 is as thin and transparent as goldbeaters' leaf, but quite perfect. 

 Both fishes are known out here ; but the smaller one is much the 

 more rare." 



On examination there could be no doubt that the smaller specimen 

 was referable to the genus Chiasmodon of Mr. Johnson*, which has 

 since been placed by Dr. Giinther among the Gadidce. 



The specimens in the British Museum would indicate a species of 

 rather diminutive size, one of them measuring only 2| and the other 

 3i inches in length; whereas the specimen obtained by Dr. Imray 

 measures nearly twice the length of the longer of these. There is 

 also a difference in the colour of the skin : Mr. Johnson states his to 

 be black, while Dr. Imray's is dark brown ; otherwise it might be 

 referred to the same species. 



The following is a detailed description of the specimen, with the 

 measurements : — 



The body is of a dark-brown colour along its dorsal aspect, pro- 

 duced by numerous minute circular brown dots (pigment-cells) stip- 



* fide Proc. Zool. Soc. 1863, p. 408. 



