134 A. Alcock — Recent Collection of Bathyhial Fishes. [No. 2, 



the posterior is a very wide foramen situated above and in front of the 

 angle of the eye. The mouth-cleft reaches just behind the vertical 

 through the middle of the eye, and the lips are large. Minute teeth 

 in broadish bands in the jaws, in a rasp-like patch outside the closed 

 mouth in the pre-maxillary, and in a broad band in about the anterior 

 third of the vomer. Gill-openings wide, separate. 



No scales : the lateral line is marked by a row of small pores. 



Pectorals narrow, pointed, nearly half an eye-length longer than 

 the snout. Vertical fins confluent, the dorsal beginning nearly an 

 eye-length in advance of the gill-opening. 



Colours in spirit: dark purple-brown, becoming silvery on the 

 abdomen : opercle black : vertical fins with a broad black edge thi-ough- 

 out their entire length. 



The largest specimen measures 15 inches. 



Loc. Bay of Bengal, Station 162 ; 165-250 fathoms. 



Synopsis of the Indian Species of Congromuriena. 



I. Head much shorter than the trunk proper : tail but little longer than the 

 head and trunk combined, — C anago, Schleg. 



II. Head nearly equal in length to the trunk proper : tail nearly twice as 

 long as the head and trunk combined : — 



i. Snout narrow, and tapering to a very sharp point, — its length between one- 

 fourth and two-ninths that of the head : cleft of the mouth not extending much 

 beyond the middle of the eye, — C. musteliceps. 



ii. Snout broadish or broad, and blunt pointed : cleft of the m.outh extending 

 much beyond the middle of the eye : — 



a. Snout one-fifth the lengtli of the head, its mucous channels opening by 

 small and inconspicuous pores : pectorals large, much longer than the snout, — 0. 

 squaliceps. 



1. Eye in the adult half the length 

 of the snout : one or two of the vome- 

 rine teeth conspicuously enlarged, — 



b. Snout one-fourth the 

 length of the head, its mucous 

 channels opening by large 

 and conspicuous pores : pecto- 

 rals small, about as long as 

 the snout. 



C. nasica. 



2. Eye in the adult about two- 

 thirds the length of the snout : no 

 enlarged teeth on the vomer, — C. 

 macrocercus ( = C. longicauda, Alcock, 

 nee Ramsay and Ogilby. 



Group Murfenesocina. 

 Xenomystax, Gilbert. 

 Gilbert, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., Vol. XIV., 1891, p. 348. 



23. Xenomystax trucidans, n. sp. 

 Head about equal in length to the trunk, the latter being about 

 two-sevenths the length of the long tapering tail. 



