Zoology.'] NATURAL HISTORT OF VICTORIA. IFishes. 



yellowish near base, colourless or smoky beyond ; first dorsal with the rays blackish, 

 membrane colourless, except at triang-ular blackish patch in front of the base of each 

 ray ; second dorsal dull blackish-olive, minutely crossed with lines of minute black 

 specks ; anal like the dorsal but a little Ijo-hter ; caudal blackish-oHve, darkest at 

 upper, lower and posterior margins ; iris yellowish. Total length from tip of snout 

 to tip of caudal, 1 ft. 7 in. Proportional measurements to length (taken as 100): — 

 Length of head from snout to end of operculum, -f/j ; from tip of snout to anterior 

 margin of orbit, y^^ ; length of orbit, x^o 5 tip of snout to base of pectoral, j%% ; 

 length of pectoral, -rVV 5 greatest depth of body, -fy-^ ; greatest thickness of body, 

 •jij^; tip of snout to base of ventrals, ^^; length of ventrals, i^^; tip of snout to 

 front of anterior dorsal, xVo! greatest height of first dorsal, yoii! space between 

 dorsals, -pjfjj ; length of second dorsal, xVu > greatest height, xf^ ; length of 

 caudal at ends, x\/*^; length of caudal in middle, i^^j; length of anal, x'(7w j 

 greatest height of first branched rays, ^ws- Number of scales in ^ in. near middle 

 of side, three. 



References. — = Gasterosteus saltatrix, Lin. Syst. Nat., p. 421 ; =^Chilodipterus 

 heptacaiithus, Lacep 3, p. 542, t. 21, f. 3 ; = Temnodon hepiacanthus, Quoy and Gaim. 

 Vdv. Freyc, Zool., t. 61, f 2, p. 400 ; = Scomber- plunibeus, Mitchel, L. and P. S. 

 N.'York, V. 1, p. 424, t. 4, fig. 1 ; De Kay, Fish, F., N. York, p. 130, t. 26, f 81. 



This is certainly identical with the " Skipjack " of English- 

 speaking fishermen in Carolina and S. Africa, as well as various 

 parts of Australia, and is the famous " Blue Fish " of the coasts of 

 New York. Like De Kay, several observers have not found the 

 eighth ray spoken of by Cuvier in the first dorsal, probably 

 from looking at the wrong end ; it is very minute and behind the 

 last spine. The two minute spines concealed in the skin in front 

 of the anal fin are ceitaiuly absent in most specimens but very 

 distinct in young ones, and perhaps may be a sexual character. 

 It is by some oversight, I suppose, that Dr. Guntber and Sir 

 W. Macleay in their Catalogues state the scales to be cycloid ; 

 they are certainly ctenoid. I only find seven rays to dorsal in 

 most large specimens such as that here figured, not eight as 

 in Gunther's and Macleay's woi-ks, agreeing thus with Quoy and 

 Gaimard and with De Kay; but in small specimens the eighth may 

 usually be found, as in our figure 3. The row of small conical teeth 

 inside the outer row of large ones in the upper jaw I find constant, 

 but they seem to have been overlooked by most observers, except 

 Quoy and Gaimard and Cuvier and Valenciennes. 



One of the commonest of the food fishes supplied to the market 

 of Melbourne from all the neighbouring coasts, usually about a 



[ 3oa J 



