266 Percomorphi 



of 1879 and 1880. It has not, so far as is known, been seen 

 since, nor is the species recorded from any other coast. 



The true Spanish mackerel has round, bronze-black spots 

 upon its sides. Almost exactly like it in appearance is the 

 pintado, or sierra (Scomberomorus regalis], but in this species 

 the spots are oblong in form. The pintado abounds in the 

 West Indies. Its flesh is less delicate than that of the more 

 true Spanish mackerel. The name sierra, saw, commonly 

 applied to these fishes by Spanish-speaking people, has been 

 corrupted into cero in some books on angling. 



Still other Spanish mackerel of several species occur on 

 the coasts of India, Chile, and Japan. 



The great kingfish, or ca valla (Scomberomorus cavalla), is 

 a huge Spanish mackerel of Cuba and the West Indies, reaching 

 a weight of 100 pounds. It is dark iron-gray in color, one 

 of the best of food-fishes, and is unspotted, and its firm, rich 

 flesh resembles that of the barracuda. 



Still larger is the great guahu, or peto, an immense sharp- 

 nosed, swift-swimming mackerel found in the East and West 

 Indies, as well as in Polynesia, reaching a length of six feet 

 and a weight of more than a hundred pounds. Its large 

 knife-like teeth are serrated on the edge and the color is 

 almost black. Acanthocybium solandri is the species found in 

 Hawaii and Japan. The American Acanthocybium petus, 

 occasionally also taken in the Mediterranean, may be the 

 same species. 



Fossil Spanish mackerels, tunnies, and albacores, as well 

 as representatives of related genera now extinct, abound in 

 the Eocene and Miocene, especially in northern Italy. Among 

 them are Scomber antiquus from the Miocene, Scombrinus 

 macropomus from the Eocene London clays, much like Scomber, 

 but with stronger teeth, Sphyranodus priscus from the same 

 deposits, the teeth still larger, Scombramphodon crossidens, 

 from the same deposits, also with strong teeth, like those of 

 Scomberomorus. Scomberomorus is the best represented of 

 all the genera as fossil, Scomberomorus speciosus and numerous 

 other species occurring in the Eocene. A fossil species of 

 Germo, G. lanceolatus, occurs at Monte Bolca in Eocene rocks. 

 Another tunny, with very small teeth is Eothynnus salmonens, 



