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



dissection. The soft dorsal, and all the other fins have the usual 

 position. 



Colours in spirit, mottled brown, tip of tongue dusky. Length 5"25 

 inches. 



Bay of Bengal, 128 fathoms. 



ANACANTHINI. 

 Family, Gadidse. 

 Phtsiculus, Kaup. 



3. Physiculus argyropastus, n. sp., PI. IX. fig. 2. 



B. 7. D. 8-9/55. A, 57. V. 6. 



Head large, broad, depressed, its length a good deal more than one- 

 fourth of the total, caudal included. Height of the compressed body 

 from about half to eleven-nineteenths the length of the head. Snout 

 broad, depressed, rounded, its length equal to the width of the interorbi- 

 tal space and just exceeding the major diameter of the eye. Mouth 

 wide, oblique, with the upper jaw overhanging ; the maxilla reaches 

 behind the vertical through the middle of the orbit ; broadish bands of 

 villiform. teeth in the jaws only. Barbel filiform and inconspicuous, 

 its length not half that of the eye. Gill-openings extremely wide, free 

 from the isthmus throughout : four gills, with about eleven spathulate 

 gill-rakers. Pseudobranchiaa glandular. Body and head invested with 

 small thin deciduous cycloid scales, of which there are six rows between 

 the first dorsal fin and the lateral line. 



The first dorsal, which is separated from the second only by a 

 notch, begins in the vertical through the origin of the pectorals ; its 

 height is about equal to the length of its base, which is considerably 

 less than one-third that of the head : the second dorsal extends to 

 within an eye-length of the caudal, and its rays, posteriorly especially, 

 are longer than those of the first. The anal begins almost in the 

 vertical through the base of the pectoral, the vent being situated 

 forwards in the vertical through the posterior edge of the operculum. 

 The pectorals are long and pointed, the upper rays reaching to the 

 twelfth or fourteenth anal ray, and being as long as the head behind 

 the middle of the eye. The ventrals arise on narrow horizontal bases : 

 the second ray is nearly as long as the head. There is a post-anal 

 papilla, and a pre-anal pigmented pit, as in Physiculus roseus. 



The margin of the large thick-walled air-bladdder is pectinately 

 lobed somewhat as in Scioenoids. Colour in spirit, light pinkish brown, 

 with a silveiw sheen ; belly, throat, and gill-membranes black. 



Bay of Bengal, 128 fathoms. 



The largest specimen, an adult female, is 9 inches long. 



