66 DEEP SEA FISHES. 



those preserved in alcohol, excepting the fins, which have a lighter appear- 

 ance, the surface and the linings of the body cavity are black. 



station. Latitude. Longitude, Depth. Temperature. Bottom. 



3382 6° 21' N. 80° 41' W. 1793 fathoms 35.8° F. Green mud. 



Melamphaes maxillaris sp. n. 



Plate D, fig. 1. 



D. Ill, 10 ; A. I, 8 ; V. 1, 7 ; P. 14 ; LI. 25 ca. 



Compared with Melamphaes nigrofiilvus the present type is distinguished 

 by the large mouth, the dentition, the small eye, the smaller scales, and the 

 backward position of the anal fin. The last mentioned would place this 

 type between the species of the subgenus Plectromus and those ot 

 Melamphaes proper. Body somewhat stout, compressed, depth near one 

 fourth, width nearly one sixth and length of the Ijodv cavity a considerable 

 more than one half of the total length ; depth of caudal peduncle two fifths 

 of the greatest depth of the body. Head large, strongly ai'clied on crown 

 and snout, subvertical on the sides, length less than one third of the entire 

 length, depth three fourths and width one half of its length. Snout large, 

 broad, blunt, rounded at the end, more than twice as long as the eye, lower 

 jaws longer, symphyseal angle prominent. Mouth very large, oblique ; 

 maxillary more than half as long as tlie headi reaching one diameter of the 

 orbit farther backward than the latter. Teeth very small, equal, in bands 

 of several series on each jaw. Eye small, less than half as long as the snout, 

 less than half of the interorbital width, near one ninth of the length of the 

 head. Bones of skull thin and fragile, deeply excavated ; skull convex on 

 the crown, with a low keel-like expansion at each side of the parietal 

 region, a more prominent expansion above each orbit and extending forward 

 of the nasal sac and down and back below the orbit, and another above 

 each maxillary. Below the chin a pair of expansions, one on each man- 

 dible, meet and form a median longitudinal keel. Opercular ridges low and 

 thin at the edges ; upper edge of preoperculum with minute serrations or 

 feeble, spines ; a sharp internarial spine immediately forward of which are 

 two sharp spines at the upper ends of the premaxillary processes. Gill 

 lamellae very short ; gill rakers long, more than twice the length of the 

 eye, becoming very slender in the outer half, aciculur, six jjIus fifteen. 

 Pseudobranchite small. 



