REGALECTJS GLE8NE — WAITE. 
165 
the flesh beneath, but the spaces between are quite free and a 
pencil or penholder may be passed under the skin along the entire 
length of the body. 
Colour — The general colour is silvery-grey, the upper surface is 
quite silvery and the five tubercular rows are equally so. The 
body is marked with irregularly oval black spots, those in front 
being as large as half a crown, while those towards the end of the 
tail are much smaller — about the size of a shilling piece. On the 
lower surface the spots are more widely spaced, and narrow black 
vertical bars are placed at intervals and directed obliquely from 
before backwards. The fins including the ventral filaments, are 
flaming red ; the dorsal is variegated with a series of opal coloured 
spots, one to each ray, placed nearer the body than the edge of 
the fin; mouth within black. The vertebrae are 136 + ? in number. 
Dimensions . 
Total length ... 
... 4020 
mm 
Length of head 
200 
>> 
Height do. 
190 
>> 
Diameter of eye 
40 
Length of maxilla ... 
70 
Height of body 
... 260 
>» 
Head to vent 
... 1150 
n 
Length, cephalic filament ... 
... 450 
>> 
Ventral filament, including tag 
... 280 
?> 
Ventral terminal tag 
60 
Height of dorsal fin 
65 
>> 
The general inclination is to now regard all the described 
examples as referable to one species, R. glesne , and although this 
name is adopted for our example, it is to be borne in mind that 
specimens exhibit very great diversity in proportionate height 
and length. It has, on the other hand, been pointed out that the 
proportions of head to body and the number of fin rays differ greatly 
at different ages. Parker* has drawn up a key to the species of 
Regalecus , from this our specimen appears to be referable either to 
R. banksii or R. grillii , having more than two hundred and fifty 
dorsal rays, no teeth, and no caudal fin. In the former species the 
height is one-thirteenth of the length and the dorsal rays two 
hundred and seventy-six to three hundred and five. In the latter 
the height is one-eighteenth of the length and the dorsal rays 
four hundred and six. In McCoy's example, named R . banksii y 
the height is one-twenty-third of the length and the dorsal rays 
four hundred and six. De Vis' species f R. mastersii) is the least 
elongate known, its height being but one-ninth of its length ; the 
number of dorsal rays is not given. 
* T. J. Parker — Trans. N. Zeal. Inst., xvi., 1883, p. 296. 
