238 ] 
RECORDS OF W.A. MUSEUM. 
I he specimen is a comparatively small one, the total length 
being nine feet seven inches. 
The following features are those in which different examples of 
Regalecus vary : — 
Height from 1/12 to 1/24 of the length (Goode and Bean) ; 
the present example was 8|- inches in height and 9 ft. 7 ins. long, 
hence the height was 1/13 of the length. 
Length of the head contained from 16 to 20 times in the 
length of the body (Goode and Bean); the present example had a 
head 7 inches long, or 1/16 of the length of the body. 
Teeth minute or absent (Goode and Bean) ; in this case they 
are absent. 
Diameter of eye 4 to 6 times in length of head (Goode and 
Bean) ; the eye has a diameter of ij inches or 5.6 times in length 
of head. 
Dorsal rays 275 to 400 (Goode and Bean) ; our specimen has 
only 205 dorsal rays, and the small missing portion of the tail could 
not possibly have borne more than another 20. 
Pectoral rays 11 to 14 (Goode and Bean) ; they are 12 in this 
example. 
Goode and Bean also state that the skin has numerous bony 
tubercles, Parker points out in his description of R. argenteus 
that the tubercles which appear to be bony as long as the skin is 
moist, disappear when it is allowed to become completely dry. I 
found that this was the case with the present specimen. 
The bases of the rays of the crest also agree precisely in their 
arrangement and relative thickness with those so caerfully described 
by Parker (loc. cit. and Trans. N.Z. Inst., XX, p. 20.) 
On the other hand, the shapes and relative sizes of the oper- 
cular bones differ very markedly from those figured by Parker, and 
indeed from those in all the other figures which I have been able 
to find. The accompanying photographic illustration will show 
this better than I can describe it (cf. Benham, P.Z.S., 1906, p. 544.) 
Unfortunately I was absent when the specimen reached the 
Museum and the sex was not determined nor the contents of the 
stomach noted. A plaster cast was prepared and the missing fins 
added and coloured from the details given by Clarke (Trans. N.Z. 
Inst., XXX, p. 253). The head and skin are preserved in the 
Museum collection. ( Registered No. P 23). 
