322 DEEP SEA FISHES. 



their extremities, Plate LXIII. fig. 4. The branchial skeleton is shown in 

 fig. 5 of this plate ; all of the bones are elongate and slender. Certain 

 features of the vertebra? over the branchial chamber distinguish this genus 

 from genera like Labichtliys and Nemichthys or from such as Venefica and 

 Xenomystax. The neural spine of the first vertebra behind the head rises 

 from the hinder portion of the centrum and reaches backward over the 

 second vertebra; the neural spine of the latter rises above the middle of the 

 centrum and passes upward almost vertically ; the spine of the third verte- 

 bra, as that of each of the five vertebra? immediately back of it, rises from 

 the forward portion of the centrum and extends forward. The ends of the 

 spines of the first and the third vertebra) are close together at the apex of 

 the spine of the second vertebra. The ninth vertebra, has two neural spines, 

 one at each end of the centrum, of wliich the anterior is extended forward, 

 as in case of the third to the eighth, while the posterior is directed backward, 

 as is the case with the spines of the tenth and following vertebra?, each of 

 wliich bears a single spine, that on the hinder half of the centrum. In the 

 scapulary arch there is but a single elongate element. Carpals, radius and 

 ulna are represented by the peculiar little semicartilaginous plate attached to 

 the scapulary and bearing the minute six-rayed pectoral, Plate LXIII. fig. 3. 



The stomach is a long sac, pointed at the posterior extremity, which 

 reaches some distance behind the vent; the short intestine leaves it on the 

 lower side near the hinder two fiftlis of its length and passes back nearly 

 straight to the end. 



Pectorals small, as long as the orbit, at the upper angle of the gill aper- 

 ture, of six to seven rays. Vertical fins low, better developed toward the 

 caudal ; dorsal lower, originating above the eleventh ray of the anal fin ; 

 anal origin about one third and dorsal about two thirds of the length of 

 the head behind the latter ; caudal acuminate. On some individuals the 

 caudal base is truncate and bears six rays the median of which are longest ; 

 on others the base is more rounded and the rays of dorsal and anal appear 

 to meet behind it. 



Total length twenty-two and one half inches. 



Black with more or less of a silvery sliine, or in young specimens silvery 

 with more or less of blackish. In cases the appearance is dark silver grey, 

 in others the skin is silvery with numerous dots of black, or black with sil- 

 very spaces, or in some the black predominates anteriorly and the silver 

 posteriorly ; caudal white, hinder edges of dorsal and anal light. 



