106 NEW-YORK FAUNA. 



Length, nine feet three inches. 



Fin rays, D. 14.13 + ix ; P. 34; V. 1.5; A. 2.12 + ix ; C. 19. 



The only American writer who has described the Tunny, as it appears on our coast, is 

 Dr. Storer, whose description I have adopted above. It agrees essentially with the characters 

 assigned by Cuvier to the Tunny of the Mediterranean, which occasionally ascends as high 

 up on the shores of Europe as Norway. It was formerly very abundant at Eckford bay in the 

 Baltic sea. Dr. Storer mentions one taken near Cape Ann, weighing one thousand pounds. 

 I have met with this fish almost every season in the New-York market, but it was always 

 cut up into small pieces for sale. The fishermen state that it is taken frequently off Block 

 island, but I have never been so fortunate as to meet with a perfect specimen. In the Ca- 

 ribbean sea, there is a species of tunny which passes with several other fishes under the name 

 of Bonito, and which occasionally appears along our southern coast. 



(EXTRA-LIMITAL.) 



T. coretta. (Cvv. et Val. Vol. 8, p. 102.) Corselet truncate ; scarcely emarginate behind. Second 

 dorsal and anal low. D. 1 3 . 1 . 1 4 + viii ; P. 3 1 ; V. 1 . 5 ; A. 2 . 1 2 + viii ; C. 35. Gulf of Mexico. 



GENUS PELAMYS. Cuvier. 

 Two dorsals. The corselet small. Teeth stout, acute, distant. 



THE STRIPED BONITO. 



Pelamys sarda. 



PLATE IX. FIG. 27. 



Scomber sarda. Bloch, Systema, p. 22, pi. 334. 



Bonetla, S. id. Mitchill, Tr. Lit. and Phil. Soc. N. Y. Vol. 1, p. 428. 



Le Bonite a das raye, Pelamys id. Cuv. et Val. Hist, des Poiss. Vol. 8, p. 149, pi. 217. 



The Skip-jack, Pelamys id. Stober, Massachusetts Report, p. 4. 



Characteristics. Blue above, with from 6-8 parallel dark stripes on the upper part of the 

 body and sides. Length 12 - 20 inches. 



Description. The body has the general form and proportions of the common Mackerel, but is 

 a larger and more robust fish. Its height to its length is as one to four. Body fusiform. The 

 keel on the sides of the tail elevated, triangular, with two smaller ones on each side on the base 

 of the caudal fin. Under a lens, the body appears covered with a fine network of exceedingly 

 minute scales. The corselet, or that part which is covered with larger rounded and more 

 distinct scales, is of a triangular shape, extending from above the branchial aperture to a 

 short distance beyond the tip of the pectoral, and from thence descends with a slightly con- 

 cave line towards the lower part of the opercle. Lateral line irregularly flexuous in its course, 



