100 DEEP SEA FISHES. 



more prominent one above each nasal sac ; rostrum short, not produced for- 

 ward of the mouth, rounded in front, with a shallow groove at each side 

 separating it from the nasal ridges; excavated above the mouth to lodge the 

 medium-sized trilobate protractile illicium. Middle lobe of tentacle largest, 

 with vertical ridges, and a small papilla on its upper and backward surface. 

 In addition to the direct protractile and retractile motion of the rostral illi- 

 cium there is, when it is protruded, a considerable motion downward by 

 which, with the motion of the middle lobe forward and down to present its 

 hinder surface to the front, the bait is brought immediately in front of the 

 mouth. Nostrils small ; posterior larger, transverse ; anterior with a short 

 tube. Mouth medium, nearly equal in width to half the distance from the 

 snout to the nape ; lower jaws longer. Teeth in villiform bands on the jaws 

 and the tongue and in short oblong groups on the forward ends of the pala- 

 tines, absent from the vomer. Orbits large, oblong, convergent anteriorly, 

 length one and two thirds times that of the snout or one and one fourth 

 times the width of the interorbital space. 



Gills two, none on the first and the fourth arches ; five rakers on the 

 first arch, six on the second ; openings small, placed superiorly in the axilla3. 

 Subopercular tubercle feebly developed, with six or seven spines, not very 

 prominent. Scales rough, tubercular, those of the middle of the disk some- 

 what apart, with slender cusps and spreading striate bases on which there 

 may be one to several spinules ; scales of the ventral surface small, simple ; 

 those of the edges of the disk larger, closely placed, three or more cusped, 

 in several series ; those of the tail large, three or four series with larger 

 cusps ; those of the top of the snout with several spinules ; and those on the 

 orbits very small. A few small spines on the rays of the caudal. 



Lateral line distinct, with deep channels, in which the small rounded 

 glands or sense organs are hidden by fleshy lobes with hardly perceptible 

 fringes and each protected by a spine at each edge of the canal ; second 

 gland from the symphysis on the lower jaw forward of the space between 

 the first and the third. 



Fins small ; dorsal origin in the middle of the total length ; anal origin 

 backward of the base of the dorsal half the length of the orbit, fin slender, 

 pointed, two thirds as long as the caudal ; caudal nearly as long as the dis- 

 tance from snout to nape, rounded on the hind margin ; pectorals three 

 fourths of the length of the caudal, fringed, rounded on the outer margin j 

 ventrals, small, narrow, fringed. 



