SOME RARE OR UNCOMMON FISHES 295 



elongated larval form and a number of other embryonic 

 characters.* 



Haloporphyrus eques, another rare deep-water gadoid, was 

 dredged in the Irish survey in 500 fathoms. In length it 

 seems to grow to 13 in. There is a barbel on the jaw, and 

 the first ray of the dorsal fin is prolonged into a threadlike 

 process. 



Nettophichthys retropinnatus was added to the British fauna 

 by Holt, who named a specimen trawled on the Irish coast in 

 1 44 fathoms. It is a brown, scaleless, eel-like fish with recurved 

 teeth, and there are black edges to the fins. The single 

 example taken was apparently immature, and measured only 

 S in. 



The Argentine {Argentina sphyrana), a marine relative of 

 the salmon, was taken in the stomach of a skate {R. oxyrhyn- 

 chus) in about 500 fathoms during the expeditions of the Irish 

 survey. It was also trawled in much shallower water, of 62 to 

 80 fathoms. 



The adult has large scales, and there is the usual rayless 

 adipose fin of the family. In colour the argentine is olive-grey 

 and silver, with two black spots on the head. It is said to feed 

 on crustaceans. 



A. silus, a new allied British species, was obtained in 1898 

 by Holt about 80 miles south-west of the Scilly Islands. It 

 is also recorded from the coast of Ross (mouth of Lochbroom) 

 caught on a line in August, 1896. 



Argyropelecus hemigymnus is an insignificant-looking, deep- 

 water fish, silvery in colour, and with round spots along the 

 body which are thought, though on somewhat questionable 

 evidence, to emit phosphorescent light. One only has been 



* Fishes, Living and Fossil, p. 169. 



