Parker. — On a Specimen of the Great Ribbon Fish. 293 



The jaws have essentially the same characters as in other species, being 

 extremely protrusible, and there are as usual six branchiostegal rays. The 

 whole form of the head, including the mouth, in the figure of R. glcsne, is 

 probably incorrect, as it differs entirely from the most authentic figures. 

 The specimen from which fig. 5 was taken had evidently had the jaws com- 

 pletely destroyed, and the artist has made the hinder boundary of the pre- 

 opercular take the form of a mouth with a very remarkable grin. 



Regalecus gladius (and by implication R. telum) is said by Gimther to 

 possess small teeth : Yarrell makes the same statement of R. glesne. 

 My specimen like all the remaining species of the genus is quite eden- 

 tulous.* 



In the Nelson specimen Mr. Travers states that " from the lower lip 

 depended a large number of rigid slender barbules, about sixteen inches 

 long and of a brilliant red colour." No such structures appear to have been 

 met with by any other observer. Is it possible that this part of the descrip- 

 tion was "compiled from information given" to the writer, as he himself 

 says is the case with some portions of his account ? 



None of the species of Regalecns possess scales, except on the lateral line; 

 but the skin in R. banksii and R. pacificus is studded with numerous bony 

 tubercles. In most of the other species it is raised into soft warts. Pro- 

 bably in all, also, the skin is covered externally with a delicate silvery 

 coating, removed by the slightest friction. In R. gladius and R. telum the 

 body is marked with greyish spots of somewhat less diameter than the eye. 

 In R. banksii and R. pacificus there are instead irregular blackish wavy lines, 

 more or less vertical in position, on the anterior part of the body. In both 

 these species, as well as in R. glesne and R. grillii, the tubercles into which 

 the skin is raised are arranged in four (three or four, R. glesne) longitudinal 

 bands ; or more correctly (in R. banksii and R. pacificus at any rate) the 

 sides of the body are raised into four longitudinal ridges, cut off obliquely 

 in front by the lateral line, and having the tubercles on them larger than in 

 the intervening depressed bands. 



Von Haast's description of R. pacificus as resembling frosted silver 

 seems to me more applicable to the present specimen than any of the terms 

 used in describing other examples. The dark irregular bands had the same 

 general disposition as in Hancock's and von Haast's specimens. When I 

 first saw the fish, within twenty-four hours of its capture, they were very 



* There is a strange discrepancy between Mr. Travers's account of the Nelson speci- 

 men, and the systematic description of jR. gladius, copied in the " Catalogue of N.Z. 

 Fishes " as applying to that specimen. R. gladius as the description sets forth, possesses 

 teeth, whereas Mr. Travers distinctly states that in his specimen " the jaws appeared to 

 be entirely destitute of teeth. 



