ON A YOUNG MATAMATA TERRAPIN. 1097 



pointed depressible teeth and aii extraordinarily distensible 

 stomach ; it belongs to the order Pediculati and is a bathypelagic 

 species, uniformly blackish in colour ; like the Angler [Lophhcs 

 piscaiorius) it has the first ray of the spinous dorsal fin situated 

 on the snout and modified into a line and bait ; in this case the 

 bait is a luminous bulb. 



" The species is known from six specimens from the North 

 Atla.ntic, three dredged at considerable depths by the ' Travailleur ' 

 et ' Talisman,' ' Valdivia ' and ' Michael Sars ' exjDeditions, and 

 three in the British Museum collection. The last are from 3 to 

 3| inches long (from snout to end of caudal fin) and include the 

 type described by Giinther (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1864, p. 301, pi. xxv.) 

 from Madeira : this had in its stomach a partly digested Scopeloid 

 fish {La')npanyctus crocodUus Risso) about 7 inches long-. The 

 second specimen was taken at the surface in 31° N. and 37° W., 

 and had in its stomach an almost peifect L. crocodilus nearly 

 8 inches long ; this was captured by Captain Charles C. Dixon, 

 master of the bark ' Elginshire,' who also secured the fish 

 exhibited to-night at 7 a.m. on August 27th, 1910, in 40° 19' N. 

 and 42° 25' W. By a strange coincidence this specimen also 

 contains a L. crocodilus^ and judging by the anterior part of the 

 head, which is still visible, one about 8 inches long ; it is curled 

 round into a complete circle in the stomach of the Melanocetus. 



" Captain Dixon writes that the Melanocetus was still alive 

 when captured and that from his observations he believes that it 

 could make the ' lure ' luminous or not at will. The fact that 

 it was caught early in the morning is interesting, for it is known 

 that at night many fishes that dwell at a depth of 300 fathoms 

 or more may approach much nearer the surface ; here the large 

 Lmnpanyctus may have been seized and its struggles may have 

 brought the captor still further out of its depth and rendered it 

 helpless." 



November 11, 1913. 



Dr. S. F. Harmer, M.A., F.R.S., F.Z.S., 

 in the Chair. 



Mr. E. G. BouLENGEK, F.Z.S. , Curator of Reptiles, exhibited 

 a quite ycTLing specimen of the Matamata Terrapin {Chelys fim- 

 h-iata), the shell of which measured but 5 cm. in length. This 

 specimen, the smallest yet recorded, differed from the existing 

 descriptions of the young of this species in tlie under surfaces 

 being of a bright magenta-red instead of pale yellow. Mr. Bou- 

 lenger suggested that as all the young previously described were 

 more than double the size of the specimen exhibited, red might 

 be the normal coloration of the under surfaces as a juvenile 

 livery. 



