MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 89 
belong to the same family as Lucifuga, and consequently the remarks 
made concerning the absence of barbels in the latter will apply ina 
measure to these genera, and with reference to Lucifuga receives more 
force by the statement of Giinther that they “are Brotula organized 
for a subterranean life” (p. 547); and in the genus Brotula, which 
has eyes, the snout is provided with barbels. 
Through the kindness of Mr. C. H. Townsend, naturalist of the 
United States Fish Commission Steamer “ Albatross,” I have been 
able to examine, though somewhat superficially, a specimen of Ipnops, — 
probably the same species as the one above mentioned, — and, so 
far as I could discover, Giinther’s statement that it is “deprived of 
organs of sight and touch” (’87, p. 190) is strictly correct. The same 
author makes the following as a general statement on this subject: 
“Special organs of touch are not more generally developed in deep-sea 
fishes than in the littoral fauna. . . . As such may be considered. . . 
the more or less detached rays of the pectoral fin of . . ., and especially 
of Bathypterois, which possesses but rudimentary eyes.” (’87, p. xxxi.) 
And in another connection the same author (p. 722) says: “ Beyond that 
depth [two hundred fathoms] small-eyed as well as large-eyed fishes 
occur ; the former having the want of vision compensated by tentacular 
organs of touch, whilst the latter have no such accessory organs.” 
I have not been able to find any direct statements concerning tactile 
papille on the several species of blind Silurids of South America men- 
tioned by Giinther (Packard, ’86, p. 107), nor have we any knowledge 
that such structures are found on Gronias, the blind representative of 
the same family from Pennsylvania. 
THE INTEGUMENT. 
I was led to a study of the integument by the question having arisen 
as to why the quantity of pigment should have diminished in it, while 
under the same conditions of life it had zmereased in the eyes. That 
such diminution had taken place in the skin was inferred from the 
generally much lighter appearance of the largest preserved specimens 
as compared with the smallest. In the latter, the whole dorsal portion 
of the body and head is covered with a great number of distinct pig- 
ment cells (Fig. 1), while the large specimens never present anything 
like so conspicuous a pigmentation; and in the majority ef cases they 
appear, on cursory observation, to be almost white. 
Closer examination shows, however, that the pigment is in reality 
