BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
68 
Genus 30. RHINOSCOPELUS Liitken. 
Body oblong, slender, compressed, with slender and elongate caudal peduncle covered with smooth, 
stiff scales, those in the lateral line much larger than the others; head compressed; cleft of mouth 
very wide; jaws about equal ; snout projecting beyond tip of lower jaw; premaxillary long and slender; 
maxillary well developed, reaching nearly or quite to angle of jireopercle, without considerable poste- 
rior dilation; teeth in villiform bands in the jaws, on the palatines, pterygoids, and tongue; eye mod- 
erate, its diameter less than one-third length of head; gillrakers very long and slender; dorsal fin 
premedian; pectoral large; adipose dorsal small; anal fin larger than dorsal; pectoral narrow, elon- 
gate; precaudals 2; supraanals about 18, in 2 groups, the break being over middle of the long anal fin 
and at end of first third of the series, approximately; anterolaterals 1 or 2; mediolaterals 2 or 3. Spe- 
cies few, mostly of the Atlantic. 
Alysia Lowe, Proc. Zool. Soe. London 1849, 14 ( loricala=coccoi ); name preoccupied. 
Rhinoscopelus Liitken, Vid. Selsk. Natur. Copenhagen, VII, 1892, 237 (coccoi). 
27. Rhinoscopelus oceanicus Jordan & Evermann. Fig. 15. 
Head 3.5 in length; depth 4.1; eye 2.5 in head; snout very short, about 6; interorbital 3.5; D. 
about 12; A. about 18; scales 2-35-3. 
Body strongly compressed, particularly posteriorly, where it tapers into the long, slender caudal 
peduncle; head exceeding depth of body; mouth large, somewhat oblique, the jaws equal, the maxil- 
lary reaching beyond the orbit, its posterior end club-shaped; eye large; anterior profile rather evenly 
Fig. 15 . — Rhinoscopelus oceanicus Jordan & Evermann; from the type. 
convex from tip of snout to nape; teeth difficult to make out, but a single row of minute ones can be 
seen on the edgeof each jaw, the exterior granular or short; the villiform stripe, if it exists, being invisible 
even with the aid of a good lens; teeth on vomer and edges of palatines more distinct than those on 
jaws, forming a broader line as if there were 2 or more rows; no granular patches visible on disk of 
palatine bone; an elevated acute mesial line separating one nasal prominence from the other; inter 
orbital space convex, rounded; preopercle nearly vertical, sloping slightly backward from above 
downward; scales large, undulated and very irregularly and sparingly toothed or crenate, and having 
about 3 basal furrows; scales of lateral line conspicuous and more persistent; 7 photophores along base 
of anal, 5 along lower edge of caudal peduncle, 2 at base of caudal, 1 on middle of side above last anal 
photophore, 4 on each side of belly between ventrals and origin of anal fin, 5 between base of ventral 
and gill-opening, 1 on side above base of ventral, a row of 3 upward and backward from front of anal, 
1 above and 1 below base of pectoral, and 1 on lower anterior portion of opercle; origin of dorsal 
somewhat behind base of ventrals, the posterior rays, together with those of anal, divided to the base; 
no spine at base of caudal. 
Color in alcohol, uniform brownish, the scales, especially on middle of side, metallic steel blue; 
top of head brownish; side of head bluish; photophores black with silvery center; fins dusky whitish. 
During the Agassiz South Pacific expedition of the Albatross in 1899-1900, 2 examples of this 
species were taken in the surface tow net at 8 p. m., September 8, 1899, at latitude 10° 57' N., longi- 
tude 137° 35' W., southeast of the Hawaiian Islands. These are apparently distinct from 7?. coruscans, 
the type of which came from between St. Helena and Ascension islands, and other specimens from 
