Coryphaenoides rupestris, Gunneeus.

Goode, G. B. & Bean, T. H., 1883, Reports on the results of dredging under the supervision of Alexander Agassiz, on the east coast of the United States, during the summer of 1880, by the U. S. coast survey steamer “ Blake, ” Commander J. R. Bartlett, U. S. N., commanding., Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College 10 (5), pp. 183-226 : 197-198

9, Coryphaenoides rupestris, Gunneeus.

Coryphaenoides rupestris, Gunnerus, Thjemske. Selsk. Skr. 3, 17G5, p. 50. Collett,

Norges Fiske, p. 131.

A specimen was taken at station 306. The species has been sent to the National Museum by Gloucester fishermen.

10. Coryphaenoides carapinus , new species.

Several specimens were obtained from various stations of the “Blake.” Most of these had their tails broken off, and all of them were completely denuded of scales, - a natural consequence of their passage in the nets from the ocean depths. By a happy chance, two scales were found attached to the base of the dorsal fin of one of the larger individuals, thus enabling us to determine the general character of the covering of the body. The description of this species is necessarily meagre.

Diagnosis. - Scales 22 to 24 in a transverse series ; (the position of the lateral line cannot be determined, but there appear to be four above it;) the scales are oval, membranous, without armature, and rather large. The first ray of the dorsal is very short ; the second, compressed anteriorly and serrated, with slender teeth closely appressed and bent upwards. Its length is equal to the length of the head, and is greater than the height of the body. This fin is seated upon a lump-like elevation of the back, and its base is as long as the snout.

The second dorsal begins over the tenth to twelfth anal ray, and at a distance from the end of the first dorsal equal to the length of the head without the snout. The vent is located not far behind the vertical from the end of the first dorsal.

The snout is acute, projecting beyond the mouth, its tip at a distance from the mouth equal to or greater than the diameter of the eye. The bones of the head are very soft and flexible, and its surface is very irregular, there being a very prominent subocular ridge, a prominent ridge extending from the tip of the snout to the middle of the interorbital space, and a curved ridge extending from the upper anterior margin of the orbit, over the cavity containing the nostrils, to a prominent point, at the side of, and slightly posterior to tip of the snout. The barbel is two thirds as long as the eye. The eye is contained in the head four times, and the length of the head in the total length six times.

Radial formula : D. II, 8, 100 ; A. 117 ; V. 10.

The upper jaw extends to the vertical through the posterior margin of the pupil ; its length equals half that of the head without the snout. The mandible extends behind the vertical through the posterior margin of the orbit ; its length is contained three times in the distance from the tip of the snout to the origin of the first dorsal.

The interorbital space is almost twice the diameter of the eye, and is equal to the length of the upper jaw. The preoperculum is crenulate .