Zoolog;/.] NATURAL HISTORY OF VICTORIA. IFMei. 



dry, and, as Couch observes, the second dorsal and anal fins are so 

 thick when alive that it is very difficult to count the rays satisfac- 

 torily. 



In different descriptions of this fish, the iris is said by some to 

 be silvery, by others golden, and by others green ; the fact was seen 

 to be, in our largest specimen (the eye of which was represented in a 

 careful colored drawing while fi'esh), that the outer portion of the 

 iris was rich, golden, brownish-yellow, the middle portion greenish, 

 and the inner edge silvery. 



I cannot doubt, after careful investigation, that the common 

 Victorian Tunny (called Bonito erroneously by the colonists and 

 fishermen), to which Count Cast.^lnau assigned the name Thynnus 

 McCoyi^ as a new species, is really the common Tunny of European 

 and American WTiters. By a slight error in the lithographing of 

 our figure, the body seems to project at base of anal and 2nd 

 dorsal fins, but, as above described, the fusiform outline is deepest 

 under the 1st or 2nd spine of 1st dorsal, tapering thence gradually 

 and regularly to the tail, and more rapidly to the snout. In stuflFed 

 or dried specimens of this, as in many other fishes, the under jaw 

 seems considerably longer than the upper, with which it more 

 nearly agrees in length when alive ; this arises from the shrinking 

 of the soft portions between the several bones of the anterior part of 

 snout above, while the more solid lower jaw retains its proper 

 length more exactly. 



The QiivvoQ of Aristotle, and Thynnus of Pliny, ranging from the 

 Mediterranean over the warm parts of the Atlantic, Pacific, and 

 Indian Oceans, only rarely visits Victoria ; our specimens having 

 all been obtained in the winter months of July or August. The 

 largest specimen, from Portland, was presented by Mr. Goldstein, 

 so well known for his microscopic researches on Polyzoa and other 

 marine objects. On account perhaps of the beef-like redness of 

 the flesh, it is not prized as food, and the fishermen here, as at 

 home, note the greater heat of the body than in other fish, due to 

 this condition of the muscles from the abundance of oxygenated 

 blood. 



It reaches 10 or even 20 feet in length in Europe and America, 

 but our individuals are rarely more than 4 feet long, and must be 



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