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Show 1866.] DR. A. CARTE ON THE GENUS CHIASMODON. 35 Tambaki, and yet not having the necessary character of a fish, in fins being absent. " In the Upper Amazons, where I had a boat of m y own and spent weeks on the lakes and still waters in the dry season, I could not get any information about the ' Tambaki-mboya.' It seems therefore to be confined to the great lakes about the Tapajos and the Madeira rivers. If hands are so scarce in that part as they were in my time, I do not know how a foreigner is to obtain a boat's crew to go in search of it." Dr. J. Murie read some notes on the Markhore (Capra megaceros), chiefly based upon a specimen of this animal which had recently died in the Society's Gardens. Dr. Murie also gave some account of the morbid appearances he had observed in a Chimpanzee which had lately died in the Menagerie. The following papers were read :- 1. Notes on the Genus Chiasmodon. By ALEXANDER CARTE, M.D., M . A . Univ. Dub., M.R.I.A., F.L.S., & c (Plate II.) In the month of August 1865 I received from Commodore Sir Leopold M°Clintock, R.N., a specimen of a fish which had been taken near the Island of Dominica, about which he writes : - " Dr. Imray, of Castries, Dominica, has given me a specimen of which the two sketches enclosed may afford you some idea. A small fish with teeth inclined backwards swallowed a much larger one, and whilst helplessly floating was picked up and given to Dr. Imray. The swallowed fish was dead, the swallower still alive ; the abdominal integument of the latter has been stretched enormously, and is as thin and transparent as goldbeaters' leaf, but quite perfect. Both fishes are known out here ; but the smaller one is much the more rare." On examination there could be no doubt that the smaller specimen was referable to the genus Chiasmodon of Mr. Johnson*, which has since been placed by Dr. Giinther among the Gadidce. The specimens in the British Museum would indicate a species of rather diminutive size, one of them measuring only 2| and the other 3| inches in length; whereas the specimen obtained by Dr. Imray measures nearly twice the length of the longer of these. There is also a difference in the colour of the skin : Mr. Johnson states his to be black, while Dr. Imray's is dark brown; otherwise it might be referred to the same species. The following is a detailed description of the specimen, with the measurements:- The body is of a dark-brown colour along its dorsal aspect, produced by numerous minute circular brown dots (pigment-cells) stip- * Vide Proc. Zool. Soc. 1863, p. 408. |
