244 Fishes observed at Nice, 1865. 



ovate scales ; snout rounded, advanced ; jaws and palate with 

 very fine acute teeth ; gape large ; eyes very large ; gill covers 

 with eight rays ; dorsal fin opposite to the anal, and both 

 placed near the tail. Only one species is known, which is the 

 A. rostratus, Kisso, commonly called Alepocephale a bee. 

 The body is twelve to fourteen inches long, of an ovate 

 oblong shape, the sides compressed, covered with large 

 ovate oblong thin scales, marked with fine circular lines of a 

 violet blue colour, and each scale clouded towards the end 

 with minute brownish black dots. The head is of a medium 

 size, covered with a black, glossy, membranous-like skin, 

 which is very thin, naked, entirely without scales, and extended 

 over the gill-covers, and forming the brachial membrane ; the 

 eyes are very large, prominent ; the iris black ; the pupil some- 

 what glaucous. The forehead slopes from the top of the head, 

 and is curved in front of the eyes, and is then extended into a 

 projecting rounded snout ; the upper jaw longest, furnished on 

 the margin with a single row of fine sharp-pointed teeth, 

 except at a notch in front, and within is another row of similar 

 teeth, on the edge of the palate ; and into the groove formed 

 between these two rows the edge of the lower jaw fits in, which 

 is also armed with a row of teeth similar to those in the upper 

 jaw. The sides of the jaw are wide, and the point terminates 

 in an obtuse bony protuberance. The tongue is free, smooth, 

 and, like the palate, lined with black. The nostrils are two 

 on each side, in front of the eyes, the one nearest the eye 

 much larger than the one in front of it. The gill-covers are 

 extremely thin, long, angular below, roundly lobed at the 

 back; the brachial membrane loose, furnished with eight slen- 

 der rays. The neck is flattened, with a somewhat prominent 

 osselet running its whole length. The lateral line arises from 

 the top of the gill-covers, behind which it is curved down to 

 near the middle of the body, and then continued in a straight 

 line to the tail ; it is formed of a series of short tubes on the 

 middle of the scales along its course ; and there are some of 

 these tubes arranged beneath the lower jaw ; they appear to 

 be ducts for the conveyance and distribution of a mucous 

 secretion over the surface of the body. The fins are of a 

 blackish colour, covered at the base with scales ; the dorsal is 

 fixed far back, near to the tail, and has fourteen rays ; and 

 opposite to it, on the under side, is the anal; it is similar in 

 shape to the dorsal, but extends rather nearer to the tail, and 

 has fifteen rays. The ventrals are placed in the centre of the 

 body, and have eight rays ; the pectorals are near the edge of 

 the gill-covers, and have eleven rays each; the eaudal, which 

 is large and strong, is somewhat half-moon shaped ; it has 

 thirty rays. The female, which resembles the male in its 



