344 SUPPLEMENT ON 



A very singular fact in the history of ichthyology is, that 

 this European fish, so large, and so remarkable for its charac- 

 ters, and the goodness of its flesh, and which on several 

 coasts of Europe constitutes the object of considerable 

 fisheries, has scarcely been known by ichthyologists. Those 

 of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries have not noticed it 

 at all ; and even many subsequent writers have either figured 

 it without any description, or in describing have erroneously 

 referred it to other species. 



The germon is considered to come from the great Atlantic 

 into the gulf of Gascony. It arrives in numerous shoals to- 

 wards the middle of the month of June. Sometimes the in- 

 dividuals are to be seen from the month of May, and occa- 

 sionally to be met with even in October. 



It gives chase to all fishes, to the mullets, the sardines, and 

 the anchovies. It pursues the flying fish, and M. d'Orbigny 

 has found exoceti in the stomach of those germons, which he 

 himself has taken. 



It is believed that the name of germon is a corruption of 

 our English war-man, that it has been in use in the isle of 

 Yeu from the period when our countrymen were in possession 

 of Guienne and Poictou, and that it is referrible either to the 

 large pectorals of the fish, which have the appearance of 

 offensive weapons, or to its habits of warfare against other fish. 



Of the genus Auxis, the common species (vulgaris), be- 

 longs to the Mediterranean, and was not distinguished before 

 the time of MM. Rafinesque and Risso. The last of these 

 naturalists informs us that it is named at Nice bonitou. 



The Cybia are found in both oceans; many attain to a 

 great size, and are very much esteemed. 



The Cybium Commersonii has been described by the inde- 

 fatigable voyager whose name it bears, in 1769, at the isle of 

 France, where it is commonly called tassard, or becune, names 

 imported from Martinique, where they appertain, one to a dif- 



