Parker. — 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, Grunther 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 

 pi. xxiv., fig, 6) in the "Eegne 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 Northumberland Coast and described to 

 Hancock and Embleton,f 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 pi. 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 (pi. 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 specimen from which the Bloch- Schneider figure of R. glesne 

 is taken was similarly damaged, as this figure (pi. 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 haivkimii has a continuous 

 dorsal with all the rays of about equal length. 



* J. M. Jones, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1860, p. 185. 

 t Loc. cit., p. 15, 

 19 



