160 DEEP SEA FISHES. 



section, little longer ttian the e^'e, rather high and thick, with a median 

 ridge and a prominence behind each nostril. Anterior nostril far forward, 

 lateral, prominent, with a slight groove to the lip ; posterior half way from 

 the anterior to the eye. Eye lateral, small, one seventh as long as the 

 head, one half as wide as the interorbital space, four fifths as long as 

 the snout. Mouth oblique, large ; maxillary reaching backward of the 

 orbit one diameter of the eye, widened as much at the truncate extremity. 

 Suborbital bones inflated over the maxillary. Teeth small, in villiform 

 bands on intermaxillaries, mandibles, palatines, and vomer. Vomerine band 

 forming an angle with the apex forward and extended down prominently 

 from the roof of the mouth. No cranial spines ; opercular spines weak and 

 flexible, hidden in the skin. No pyloric caeca. Pseudobranchia3 very small, 

 a pair of pinnules. Gill rakers two plus several rudiments on the upper 

 half of the first arch and thirteen or fourteen plus three or four rudi- 

 ments on the lower section ; longest nearly as long as the eye. Scales 

 small, thin, about twenty-seven in a series fi'om the first ray of the anal to 

 the dorsal. Ventrals close together, under the humeral symphysis, each 

 reduced to a single threadlike segmented ray. Dorsal origin above the 

 upper angle of the gill opening ; origin of the anal not twice the length of 

 the head from the end of the snout. Caudal slender, sharp pointed, nearly 

 half as long as the head. Pectoral simple, small, hardly reaching as far 

 back as to the vent. 



Head, belly, and linings of mouth, gill chamber and body cavity black; 

 fins light with black margins; muscular portions rusty brownish, no doubt 

 darker before loss of scales. It may be that the muscular portions and the 

 fins were reddish in life. 



Diplacanthopoma Jordan! sp.n 



Outlines resembling those of D. brachi/soma Giinther, with, perhaps, a 

 little more elongation in the caudal region. Body compressed, high at 

 the nape, tapering regularly to slender at the tail ; greatest depth one 

 fifth of the entire length. Head massive, one third of the total length, 

 three fifths as deep and two fifths as wide as long, convex on the crown. 



