162 SCOMBERID.E. 



by the various modes adopted for the capture of that fish, of 

 which an account is included in this volume, at page 152. 



The females of this species are larger than the males ; they 

 deposit their spawn in August ; the ova are white, invested 

 with a reddish albuminous covering. 



The specimen here figured and described measured 

 eighteen inches in length ; four inches and a half in depth 

 and eleven inches and a half in girth, or circumference, be- 

 hind the first dorsal fin ; the body in form being nearly 

 cylindrical. The mouth is small ; the under jaw rather the 

 longest ; the teeth very minute, and placed in a single row 

 along the edges of both jaws ; the eye rather elongated hori- 

 zontally, the anterior margin of the orbit in a line over the 

 angle of the gape, the irides golden yellow ; the cheeks and 

 gill-covers smooth, the edges rounded and entire ; the first 

 dorsal fin, the pectoral, and the ventral fins, have their origin 

 very nearly on the same plane ; the first ray of the dorsal fin 

 is two inches long, but rather shorter than the length of the 

 base of the whole fin, which, when the rays are depressed, 

 falls into, and is entirely hid in a deep groove on the dorsal 

 line ; the longest ray of the pectoral fin is of the same length 

 as the longest ray of the first dorsal fin, and there is in the 

 side of the fish behind the pectoral fin, on each side, a shallow 

 cavity which receives the whole fin, and brings its outer sur- 

 face on the same level as the surface of the body ; the longest 

 ray of the ventral fin is not quite so long as that of the pec- 

 toral fin, and this fin can also be received behind an indurated 

 free fold of the skin, extending along the under edge of the 

 fin, and which completely hides the fin itself. The thorax 

 arid the part around the pectoral and ventral fins, is covered 

 with small scales, forming a corselet, as shown in the figure, 

 which terminates in four points directed backwards, of which 

 four points one is on the upper middle line of the back, one on 

 each lateral line, the fourth on the central line of the belly. 



