200 Mr. A. Alcock on the Bathybial Fishes 
about 2]V ? in the total, without caudal. Head inclined to 
depression in its anterior half, deep, broad, and inflated in 
its branchial region, with the operculum prolonged ; scaly, 
except on the snout and upper jaw. Snout depressed, rounded ; 
its tip formed by a prominent median knob on the projecting 
lower jaw ; its extreme length (including the mandibular 
element) is equal to the major diameter of the eye and is less 
than its breadth. Eyes in their long diameter 4§ in the head- 
length ; the upper border of the orbit enters the dorsal profile ; 
the breadth of the interorbital space is one third the length of 
the eye. Nostrils superior. Mouth wide, oblique; jaws 
strong, the maxilla reaches the vertical through the posterior 
border of the orbit, the mandible closes outside the maxilla ; 
teeth in villiform bands in the premaxilla and palatines and 
in a small patch on the vomer ; small canines in the man- 
dible and at the maxillary symphysis ; tongue long and 
spathulate. 
Gill-opening very wide ; operculum with two flat spines ; 
preopercular border rounded and serrated throughout ; sub- 
and interoperculum large ; pseudobranchiae coarse ; gill-rakers 
tuberculate. Scales, except on the lateral line and in the row 
flanking the dorsal fin, large, finely ctenoid, except on the 
operculum ; eight series on the cheek. Lateral line salient, 
with very small scales. One dorsal, with its spinous and soft 
portions of equal extent, the fourth and fifth spines the 
greatest and one fourth longer than the eye ; the rays slightly 
increasing in length to the ninth, which is less than two thirds 
of the maximum body-height and shorter than the corre- 
sponding anal ray. Caudal emarginate, with the upper lobe the 
longer, its basal half scaly ; its length is about equal to that 
of the pectoral, which is rather longer than the postorbital 
portion of the head. Yentrals subjugular, the second ray 
almost as long as the pectoral fin. Pyloric cseca few. Air- 
bladder small. 
Colours in life : — Head and body bright pink, belly and 
throat white ; a broad bright yellow band passes from the tip 
of the snout through the eye to the caudal fin ; indefinite 
bright yellow markings on the cheeks, opercles, and fins. 
In spirit, faded yellow, with four incomplete cross bands of 
grey. 
Total length 5^ inches. 
Hab . Vide Station 96. Two specimens. 
