305 
of the Arabian Sea . 
The stomach contained a large Penafid. 
This species differs from all described Bathytroctes and 
from all hitherto known Alepoceplialid^e in possessing (appa- 
rently) scaly opercles ; but, apart from the need of actual 
demonstration on this point, the affinities are so clearly indi- 
cated that one would hardly wish to separate the species from 
a family still so incompletely known on the ground of this 
one peculiarity. 
Narcetes, gen. nov. 
Closely allied to Bathytroctes , Gthr. 
Head naked. Body rather elongate, compressed, covered 
with scales of moderate size. Eye rather small. Mouth 
wide ; the maxilla extending beyond the vertical through the 
middle of the orbit. Fine teeth in premaxilke, maxillae, 
mandible, palatines, and vomer, those in the premaxillse and 
mandible pluriserial ; no teeth on the tongue. 
Gill-openings wide ; gill-covers complete; seven branchio- 
stegals ; four gills, with narrow laminas ; gill-rakers long\ 
Pseudobranchias present. No adipose dorsal fin. Caudal 
forked. Pyloric cteca in moderate number. Ovaries with an 
oviduct. 
10. Narcetes erimelas , sp. n. 
B. 7. D. 15-16. A. 12. C. circ. 35. P. 10-11. 
Y. 9. L. lat. 68. 
Head broad, pyramidal, its length 3J to 3^ in the total 
without the caudal ; body elongate, its greatest height, just 
behind the gill-opening, about 5i in the same standard, and 
gradually diminishing to the caudal peduncle. 
Head-bones sculptured, especially the operculum and pre- 
operculum, both of which have their border augmented by a 
semimembranous corrugated fringe. 
Snout nearly as broad as long, depressed, rounded from 
side to side, its dorsal and ventral profiles meeting at an acute 
angle ; its length is a little over J that of the head, and more 
than half as long again as the eye. Nostrils very large. 
Eye rather small, its major diameter 5f in the head-length, 
and not quite equal to the width of the deeply concave inter- 
orbital space. 
Mouth wide, oblique; the maxilla reaches conspicuously 
behind the vertical through the posterior border of the orbit. 
The premaxilla is a short strong bone ; the maxilla is com- 
