ZOOLOGY, 



ON THE OCCURRENCE OP THE BONITO [THYNNUS PELAMYS) 

 NEAR ST. ANDREWS, WITH SOME REMARKS ON 



THE SC0MBRID£. 



By ROBERT WALKER, F.G.S.E. 



A FINE example of this rare species in the British seas, was 

 caught in a salmon net at the mouth of the Kenly, about 

 four miles east of St. Andrews, on the 26th July, 1873. The 

 fish was sent to Dr. Moir of this city, through whose kindness I 

 had an opportunity of examining the specimen. It measured 

 from the point of the nose to the fork of the tail thirty-four 

 inches, to the tip of the tail two inches more. The greatest 

 vertical depth of body, a little behind the commencement of the 

 dorsal fin, eight and a half inches. Greatest circumference, at 

 same place, twenty-three and a half inches. Weight twenty- 

 seven and a half lbs. The stomach contained a few vertebrae 

 of the herring. The anterior part of the fish is of a somewhat 

 acute conical shape, the body gradually tapering on all sides 

 from the point where it is thickest to the end of the rather sharp 

 snout. The first dorsal, the pectoral, and the ventral fins, can 

 be depressed at will, flush with the surface of the body; the 

 former in a grove along the back, the two latter in cavities cor- 

 responding in depth and shape to the form and thickness of 

 these organs. When the fins are in this position the whole fish 

 will of course present the least possible resistance to the sur- 

 rounding medium in which it is moving, and in this aspect it 

 may be looked on as a perfect model of an animal, or a body, 

 constructed for making rapid progress through the water. This 

 combined 'with its great muscular power must make it a terrible 

 foe to the luckless fishes it selects for its prey ; even such quick 

 moving species as the different flying-fishes, are not able to 



