22 Fishes new to the British Fauna^ 



BuRACO DE Velha, Gen. ? 



This fish is 12 or 14 in. long, and 4 in. wide ; from the head 

 the back is elevated and arched; the head itself sharp, in 

 each jaw a row of very small teeth. The lower part of the 

 mouth and tongue a bright red, iris of the eye gold and dusky. 

 A single dorsal fin, the first rays firm, the posterior flexile ; 

 tail forked; scales moderate, silvery, bluish from the head 

 along the back; lateral line white. [Ray, Syn. Pise, p. 134.) 



I am uncertain whether this fish is rightly arranged among 

 the Percae ; and unfortunately I was prevented from examining 

 a species that was taken at Looe a few years since, of which I 

 received an account from that place. This is probably the 

 only instance of its having ever visited the British seas. 



Spanish Mackarel (aSco'mber L. macula^tus C.) ; 

 Class in. Thoracic Fishes. 



This fish (Jig. 8.) attains the weight of four or five pounds ; 

 but the specimen described measured no more than 14^ in. in 



length, the figure round and plump, 6 J in. in compass near the 

 pectoral fins, the thickness of its figure being carried far to- 

 wards the tail. Mouth large, jaws of equal length, teeth small, 

 tongue movable and pointed. Head large and long; eye 

 large, l^in. from the snout, and itself | in. wide; from the 

 snout to the pectoral fin SJ in. Rays of the gill membrane 

 six, concealed. Lateral line at first slightly descending, then 

 straight. Scales on the superior plate of the gill covers, as 

 well as on the body. First dorsal fin in a chink, seven rays, 

 the first shorter, second and third of equal lengths ; spurious 

 fins six above and below, the anterior not high ; tail divided, 

 and at its origin doubly carinated. Vent prominent. Colour 

 dark blue on the back, striped like the mackarel, but more 

 obscurely and with fewer stripes ; a row of large dark spots 

 from the pectoral fin to the tail, sides and belly thickly 

 covered with smaller dusky spots. The tail, gill covers and 

 sides, and behind the eye, bright yellow. From the mackarel, 

 which it resembles, this fish differs in the markings of the 

 head, longer snout, larger e}e and gape, longer head, and in 



