1894.] TELEOSTEAX MOBPHOLOGY. 419 



Anatomical Features. 



The Alimentary Viscera. — The abdominal cavity is much 

 elongated, extending back rather beyond the first third of the anal 

 fin, and terminating in a narrow process, the apex of which, in a 

 specimen 47^ inches long, is 32 inches from the snout. The 

 alimentary tract, as compared with that of the Common Ling, 

 exhibits features of some interest. The cardiac portion of the 

 stomach, which, as in the Ling, is prolonged backwards beyond 

 the small bulbous pyloric portion, occupies the whole length of the 

 visceral cavity except the narrow canal-like process already 

 referred to. It is extremely thin-walled and flaccid, and thus in 

 marked contrast to the firin muscular stomach of the Ling. The 

 pyloric caeca are numerous, as in the Ling, but somewhat larger. 

 The delicacy of the walls may be said to be characteristic of the 

 whole of the alimentary canal in the Birkelange. It reaches its 

 maximum in that part of the intestine which is beyond the origin 

 of the pyloric caeca. The walls are here so thin as to be 

 ruptured at the slightest attempt to lift the gut, and, in one 

 specimen, were found to have been ruptured before the visceral 

 cavity was opened. The intestine is very much shorter, as well 

 as more delicate, than in the Ling, as will be readily understood by a 

 glance at Plate XXIX. figs. 3 and 4 \ It also appears to be subject 

 to variation in its arrangement, the condition in two examples, 

 both females, being shown in figs. 3 and 3 a. The liver is very much 

 larger than in the Ling. It consists of a single ventral lobe, in 

 which the coalescence of lateral elements appears to be indicated 

 by the presence of deep sulci. It is somewhat expanded anteriorly, 

 while the posterior process appears to pass indifferently either to 

 the right or left of the rectum. In the Gradidaj a greater develop- 

 ment of the liver seems to be frequently characteristic of the 

 more abysmal members of a genus. The mesenteries are as stout 

 as in the Ling. 



The Air-bladder. — This is a simple fusiform structure, oc- 

 cupying the roof of the abdominal cavity from the anterior 

 extremity to the origin of the ureter. It differs from that of the 

 Ling chiefly in that its anterior cornua, which lie external to the 

 attachments of the pharyngeal muscles to the vertebral column, 

 possess no lumen, and that its dorsal wall is somewhat more 

 spongy and less definite than that of the commoner species. The 

 rete mirabile, a single structure, 4 inches long by 1 inch broad in 

 a specimen 47g inches long, occupies the usual position, and is, if 

 anything, a little smaller than in the Ling. 



The Kidneys. — These terminate posteriorly in a small expanded 

 process, from which the ureter passes obliquely forward to the 

 region of the vent. The posterior process is much larger in the 

 Ling, and blocks the narrow end of the visceral cavity. On the 



1 Smitt (op. cit. jd. 524), in a very brief account of the visceral anatomy, 

 notes that no part of the intestine, in a male (55 cm. long, extended beyond the 

 anus. 



