GABID^. 319 



4. Motella macrophthalma, Plato LXXXIX, f. 2. 



Motella macrophthalma, Giinther, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. 1867 (3) xx, 

 p. 290, pi. V, f. B and 1. c. 1874 (4) xiii, p. 139. 



B. Tii, D. /55, P. 16, V. 6, A. 65, C. 3-2. 



Length of head 4i, of caudal fin 7, height of body 7i in the total length. 

 Eye — diameters 4 to 4^- in the length of the head, 1 diameter from the end of the 

 snout, and 1 apart. The greatest height of the head rather exceeds one half of 

 its length. Barbels — three, two on the snout and one beneath the symphysis of 

 the lower jaw. Teeth — cardiform in the jaws with an outer enlarged row of 

 widely separated ones in the lower jaw, and in a patch on the vomer : none upon 

 palatines or tongue. Fins — the first dorsal commences above the middle of the 

 opercle and extends to above the last third of the pectoral fin, the length of its 

 base equals 2/3 of that of the head. Vent situated at 1/3 of the distance between 

 the front edge of the eye and the posterior extremity of the caudal fin. Colours — 

 brownish becoming lighter on the sides and beneath : the smaller example shows 

 traces of what may have been cross-bands. 



This species, instituted from young examples, is very similar to M. cimhria, but 

 deficient in one of the barbels as well as possessing an excess of about 5 dorsal and 

 11 anal rays. 



Habitat. — One example is 3 inches in length taken at eighty fathoms depth, 

 the other nearly 4^ inches long, and figured life size, captured at a similar depth 

 between Shetland and Faroe. 



