ParKker.—On a Specimen of the Great Ribbon Fish. 289 
the other pairs immediately above.” I have italicized the concluding portion 
of this quotation, as I am totally unable to make it tally with the first part, 
or indeed to understand its meaning. 
In R. gladius, Günther states that ‘the anterior twelve dorsal rays are 
produced, the first five forming a separate division above the eye, the seven 
following terminate in cutaneous lobes.” This description is probably 
taken from Cuvier and Valenciennes and tallies exactly with the figure (see 
pl. xxiv., fig. 6) in the “Règne Animal," in which the five anterior rays are 
united by membrane for fully three-fourths of their length and taper away 
distally to a point; the seven posterior are only united for a short distance 
from the base, terminate in lanceolate lobes and show a progressive diminu- 
tion in length from before backwards, the sixth ray being more than four 
times the height of the head, the twelfth little more than half that height. 
The terminal lobes on these seven posterior rays are definitely lanceolate, 
instead of being formed by a gradual widening of the membranous invest- 
ment of the spine as in Haast’s and Hancock’s figures. 
The Bermudas specimen is similarly described* as having “ a series of 
ten or eleven erect quill-like flexile filaments, from 2 to 3 feet in extent, 
gradually tapering from base to apex, and possessing, in the case of the 
three longest, lanceolate points.” 
Of two specimens caught off the Noptlinsaberlandieodss and described to 
Hancock and Embleton,} it is said that “there were four processes about 
18 inches long from the head, of a red colour, like the feelers of boiled 
lobsters ; they tapered gradually towards their ends, which were enlarged 
to the form and size of a large button." ~ 
These are all the detailed descriptions of this curious crest which I have 
been able to find. Of the two drawings in the Banksian Copy of Pennant’s 
Zoology, one (see pl. xxiv., fig. 4) shows a crest of eleven rays, all tapering 
distally and not united by membrane ; the length of the first is more than 
twice the height of the head and it is curved forwards and downwards; the 
second is barely longer than the height of the head ; the rest diminish pro- 
gressively. The second of these drawings (pl. xxiv., fig. 5) is evidently taken 
from a specimen in which all the rays except the seventh were so broken as 
to give no indication that they were longer than those of the second dorsal. 
Probably the spoojinen from which the Bloch-Schneider figure of R. glesne 
is taken was si ly damaged, as this figure (pl. xxiv., fig. 8) gives a small 
anterior dorsal fin supported by 7 rays all equal in length to those of the 
second dorsal. Bloch's semi-mythical Gymnetrus hawkinsii has a continuous 
dorsal with all the rays of about equal length. 
* J. M. Jones, Proc. Zool. Soc., 1860, p. p 
Loc. cit., p. 15, 
