Mr. Gray on a New Species o/Tetrapturus. 313 



XXXVI. — Description of a new Species of Tetrapturus from 

 the Cape of Good Hope. By John E. Gray^ Esq., F.R.S., 

 Senior Assistant in the Zoological Department of the Bri- 

 tish Museum. 



[With a Plate.] 



Cuvier in his History of Fish describes a species of this genus from 

 the coast of Sicily, first noticed by M. Rafinesque, and which my 

 friend the Prince Charles L. Bonaparte informs me is found along 

 the whole coast of Italy ; and indicates two others, one from Sumatra, 

 suggested by a note from M. Broussonnet ; and the other founded 

 on the Makiara of Lacepede, which is probably only a specimen of 

 Tetrapturus Betone, in which the observer had overlooked the ventral 

 fins. 



The specimen I am about to describe, which greatly resembles 

 Lacepede's figure of the Makiara, was brought to this country last 

 year by Mr. Smuts,. the author of a work on the Mammalia of the 

 Cape, and sold by him to the Trustees of the British Museum, where 

 it forms one of the chief ornaments of the Ichthyological collection. 

 Besides differing very considerably in the thickness and propor- 

 tionate shortness of the body from the species figured by Cuvier 

 (Hist. Poiss. viii. p. 228), it has one peculiarity which at once di- 

 stinguishes it from the Mediterranean species ; as I cannot suppose 

 that it could have escaped the attention of M. Bibron, who made a 

 dissection of the specimen, if it had existed in that species. The skin 

 of the Cape species is strengthened with numerous elongate-lanceo- 

 late flexible bones, varying from two to three inches in length, and 

 sometimes united together by their outward surface. The fish ha- 

 ving been discovered during the visit of Sir John Herschel at the 

 Cape, I have named it in honour of him, 



Tetrapturus Herschelii. The upper beak elongate ; the skin 

 strengthened with bony spicula. Inhab. Table Bay, Cape of Good 

 Hope. (Plate X). The specimen when stuffed is nearly 11 feet 

 long ; the beak to the gape is 2' 8" ; the lower jaw to the gape, L' 3" ; 

 the pectoral fin, 1' 9" ; the ventral fin, which is imperfect, 9 inches ; 

 the crescent of the tail is 4 feet 10 inches long. The first dorsal fin 

 has 11 soft and 29 spinous rays, and the second 7 rays. 



The dorsal and anal fins are furnished with a deep fold on each 

 side, between which they must be completely hidden when folded 

 down. 



A tail, which appears to have belonged to a larger specimen of this 

 species, has been for many years in the collection of the British Mu- 

 seum. 



