178 A. Alcock — Account of the Deep Sea Collection. [No. 4, 



jaws, vomer, and palatines. Eyes large, supero-lateral. Gill-cleft wide ; 

 seven branchiostegals ; preoperculuni armed ; four gills ; pseudobran- 

 chia3 large. Scales ctenoid ; lateral line continuous from occiput to cau- 

 dal fin, its anterior portion armed. Two separate dorsal fins, the first 

 short, the second long, and equal opposite and similar to the anal. 

 Ventrals jugular. 



No air-bladder ; no pyloric casca. 



1. Bathypercis platyrhynchus, n. sp., PI. IX fig. 1. 



General aspect Platycephaloid, with some superficial resemblances 

 to Callionymus. 



B. 7. D. 6/14. A. 16. C. 12, with numerous rudimentary rays at 

 base. P. circ. 25. V. 1/5. L. lat., from origin on occiput, 50. L. 

 tr., 11. 



Head large, broad, depressed, its extreme length, measured from 

 the tip of the projecting mandible to the apex of the prolonged opercu- 

 lar flap is not much less than half the total, caudal excluded. Body 

 elongate, cylindrical, low, and tapering to the large caudal. 



The snout is broad, much depressed, and spathulate, resembling the 

 bill of Bathypterois ; its extreme length is equal to the major diameter 

 of the orbit, and rather over one-fourth the extreme length of the head. 

 Mouth -cleft wide, slightly oblique, the maxilla reaching nearly to the 

 vertical through the middle of the eye, and ending in a fleshy barbel. 

 Teeth in villiform bands on the jaws, vomer, and palatines. Tongue 

 large, spathulate. 



The large eyes are placed close together on the summit of the 

 head, separated from each other by a narrow groove ; but the visual 

 axis is lateral. The gill-cleft is very wide, the gill-membranes being 

 free of the isthmus throughout : the preopercular angle is spinate, 

 and the operculum, which is prolonged in membrane nearly to the level 

 of the 4th dorsal spine, has two spines above and one below. Four 

 gills with setiform gill-rakers and broad laminae : pseudobranchias 

 large. 



The body, arid the head and the snout above, are covered with 

 rather large finely ctenoid scales. The lateral line, beginning on the 

 occiput as a close-set row of re-curved spines, or strongly carinated 

 scales, curves inwards towards the first dorsal fin and then downwards 

 along the lower half of the tail, being salient but unarmed in this part 

 of its course. 



The first dorsal fin is short, and is separated from the second by 

 four or five row T s of scales : the second, which is much more elevated 

 than the first, extends from the level of the vent to within an eye- 

 length, of the base of the caudal. The anal fin is similar to the second 



