348 DEEP SEA FISHES. 



Myxine glutinosa. 



3fi/xina glutinosa Linne, 1754, Mus. Ad. Fridr., I, 01, V\. 8, fig. 4. 

 Myxine glutinosa Linn., 1758, Systema, ed. 10, I, G50. 

 Gastrobranchus coecus Bloch, 1795, Ausl. Fische, IX, 67, PI. 413. 



" Plate LXVIII. fig. 5. 



A smaller uumbei' of teeth and a smaller nvmiber of pores distinguish 

 this species from the others. The form is comparatively stout, and the lab- 

 rum is short, blunt, and rounded. In the upper series there are most often 

 eight teeth in each (sometimes seven or nine in one series or the other), 

 and in the inner series there are either eight or nine (sometimes ten). The 

 anterior two of each series are usually confluent in their bases. The pecto- 

 ral pores vary from twenty-five to twenty-eight, the abdominal from fifty- 

 three to fifty-seven, and the caudal from eleven to thirteen. A specimen at 

 hand has eighty-eight dorsal and fifty-three anal rays. 



The color is dark brown to brownish, with more or less of leaden, when 

 freshly placed in alcohol, and varies in regard to the amount of light color 

 along the abdominal fold and the fins. 



The specimens examined have the localities Denmark, Norway, Great 

 Britain, Liverpool, Europe, and three of them, purchased from C. L. Salmin, 

 are labelled " Triest." These last tend to establish Bloch's conclusion re- 

 garding the presence of Myxine in the Mediterranean, based on Aristotle's 

 statement in respect to Pholis (Hist. Anira., Book IX. chap. 25), a conclu- 

 sion afterward discredited by Johannes Mliller. " The mucous substance 

 which the pholis emits forms around it, and resembles a chamber" is a 

 statement that is sure to recall that of Kalm concerning the behavior of a 

 living 31. ffliitinosa when placed in a vessel of water. This species, accord- 

 ing to Vaillant, was taken by the " Travailleur " off the coast of Portugal at 

 a depth of 251 fathoms. 



HOMEIDtE. 



BddhstomidcB Gill, 1872, Arr. Fara. Fishes, 25. 

 BdellostomatidcB J. G., 1882, Bull. IG, U. S. Mus., 9G7. 

 HeptatremidcB Gill, 1894, Mem. Amer. Acad., VI, 129. 



This family is so closely allied to the MyxinidaB as hardly to be entitled 

 to a rank higher than that of a subfamily ; the numbers of gills and of gill 

 apertures, six or more of each, are the principal distinguishing features. 



