Fa KUAN — Seventh Report on the Fishes of the IrisJi Atlantic Slojie. 121 



Body moderately compressed, covered with cycloid scales without spines. 

 These scales are easily rubbed off, and were absent from the Selga specimen. 



Tin rays: 1st Dorsal, II + 9. Pectoral, 18. Ventral, 8. 



First dorsal with first spinous ray very minute, not emerging from tlie 

 skin ; second ray of moderate length, unarmed, broken in the Hehja specimen. 

 The fin is low, but slightly higher than the second dorsal, from which it is 

 separated by a space equal to the interval between two fin rays. The anal 

 fin begins under the tenth ray of the second dorsal, and its rays are con- 

 siderably shorter than those of that fin. The pectoral arises very slightly 

 behind, and the ventral very slightly in front of the level of the commence- 

 ment of the first dorsal. The pectoral and ventral fins in the Hdya specimen 

 were damaged, but did not show any signs of having had elongated rays. 



Colour of specimen preserved in formaline silvery, the lining of the 

 moutli and gill cavity being deep brownish-black. 



The following measurements are taken from the specimen captured by 

 the Hclga : — - 







em. 



Total leng-th. 





28-8 + 1 



Lcugtji of head from 



snout, 



5-2 



Lengtli of head from 



tip 





of jaw, 





0-4 



Leng-th of snout, 





11 



Snout to eye, 





1-4 



Snout to 1st dorsal, 





5-5 



Snout to 2nd dorsal, 





7-7 



Snout to ventral. 





5-9 



Snout to vent, 



Snout to front of mouth, .. 



Diameter of eye, vertical. 



Diameter of eye, horizontal. 



Inter-orbital space. 



Eye to hind edge of operculum, 2-7 



Height of body, ... ... 4-4 



■Width of body, ... ... 2-4 



Width of head, ... ... 2-6 



cm. 

 S-6 



• 7 

 1-25 

 1-45 

 1-7 



General Distribution. — Bathycjadv^ melanobranclms was described by 

 Vaillant from specimens taken off Senegal, Morocco, and the Canaries, 

 where the I'ravaiUacr and Talisman found it abundantly in 8.34-1,495 

 fathoms. The Ilirondelle extended its range to the Azores, and the Miclmel 

 Sars also found it in the same locality. 



B. mclaiiohranchus is not known from outside the Atlantic, as B. furvcsccns, 

 which Brauer (1906) and AVeber (1913) believed to be the same species, has 

 been shown by Gilbert and Hubbs (1920) to be distinct, having a much 

 longer snout, longer than the eye and 3'5 to o^T times in the length of the 

 head. 



Irish Distrihution. — The capture by the Hehja of a single specimen in 

 5P46'K, 12°05'W., 549-646 fathoms (S.R. 397, 2 Il'OT) extended the 

 known northern limit of 39° 36' 30" N. [Ilirondelle) by more than ten degrees. 

 This capture has already been briefly recorded (Holt and Byrne, 1908), 



