284 Transactions. — Zoology . 



There are about 70 columns to the square inch in the anterior, about 40 

 in the posterior part of the electric organ. 



EXPLANATION OP PLATE XXII. 



Fig. 1. Torpedo fusca, from above (J nat. size). 



Fig. 2. ,, „ The mouth and adjacent parts (£ nat. size) ; f.n.p., fronto-nasal 



process ; na, nostril; pt. qu, upper jaw; mclc, lower jaw. 

 Eig. 3. „ ,, The dorsal fins (£ nat. size) ; a,b, base of 1st and a'b' of 2nd dorsal ; 



ac, greatest length of 1st and a'c' of 2nd ; cd, vertical height of 



1st and c'd' of 2nd. 



Art. XX. — On a Specimen of the Great Ribbon Fish (Eegalecus argenteus, 

 n.sp.), lately obtained at Moeraki, Otago. By T. Jeffery Parkek, 

 B.Sc. 



[Read before the Otago Institute, 12i/t July, 1883.] 

 Plates XXIII. and XXIV. 

 The genus Eegalecus includes a few species of highly specialized deep-sea 

 fishes, which are among the rarest members of the class. Giinther, in his 

 "Catalogue of Fishes,"* describes six species, some of which are apparently 

 founded upon single specimens, while some again are rendered decidedly 

 doubtful, owing to the imperfections of the original descriptions and figures, 

 and the absence of further specimens. 



The total number of examples recorded is very small. Giinther statesf 

 that only sixteen captures have been made in England between 1759 and 

 1878. Of these eleven at least were referable to a single species, R. 

 banksii, while one is assigned to R. grillii. Two or three specimens at least 

 have apparently been obtained in Norway (R. glesne), several in the Mediter- 

 ranean (R. gladius and R. telum), one at the Cape of Good Hope (R. gladius ?), 

 one at the Bermudas (R. gladius ?), and one at Vizagapatam (R. russellii). In 

 New Zealand a specimen (species doubtful) was found at Nelson in 1860, and 

 described by Mr. W. T. L. Travers. { Another was caught at New Brighton, 

 near Christchurch, in 1876, and was described by Dr. von Haast,|| who 

 made it the type of a new species (R. jmcijicus). A third was cast ashore 

 on Little Waimangaroa Beach, on the West Coast of the South Island, in 

 1877 ; but of this the only description extant § is not exact enough for the 



* Vol. iii., p. 307. t " Study of Fishes," p. 522. 



{Giinther, "Cat. of Fishes," iii., p. 307; Hutton and Hector, "Fishes of New 

 Zealand," p. 35. 



|| Tians. N.Z. Inst., vol. x., p. 246. § Quoted by v. Haast, loc. ciU 



