384 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



depressed, with a rather large keel on each side; first dorsal 

 short, separated from the second by a considerable interspace, 

 second dorsal and anal small, each with seven or eight finlets; 

 pectorals and ventrals small; no air bladder; branchiostegals 

 seven; pyloric caeca dendritical; gill rakers very long and slen- 

 der, numerous; vertebrae 39 in number, peculiarly modified, 

 essentially as in G y m n o s a r d a. 



193 Auxis thazard (Lac^p^de) 



Frigate Mackerel 



Scomber thazard Lacepede, Hist. Nat. Poiss. Ill, 9, 1802, Ooast of New 

 Guinea. 



Auxis vulgaris Ctjvier & Valenciennes, Hist. Nat. Poiss. VIII, 139, 1831, 

 Mediterranean. 



Auxis rocJiei Gunthek, Cat. Fish. Brit. Mus. II, 369, 1860; Jordan & Gil- 

 bert, Bull. 16, U. S. Nat. Mus. 425, 1883. 



Auxis thazard Jordan & Gilbert, op. cit. 911, 1883; Jordan & Evermann, 

 Bull. 47, U. S. Nat. Mus. 867, 1896, pi. CXXXIII, fig. 365, 1900. 



Body stout, subterete, fusiform, tapering to a very low caudal 

 peduncle, the greatest depth one fourth of total length without 

 caudal, the ^\adth nearly two thirds of the depth; the least depth 

 of caudal peduncle about two fifths of length of iris; head short, 

 conical, pointed, its length one fourth of the total to end of mid- 

 dle caudal rays, its width two thirds of its length, the width of 

 the interorbital space one half postorbital length of head; snout 

 short, as long as the eye, one fifth as long as the head; the lower 

 jaw not projecting when the moiuth is closed, the maxilla reach- 

 ing to below middle of pupil, the mandible two fifths as long as 

 the head and reaching nearly to below hind margin of orbit. The 

 eye is as long as the snout and one fifth as long as the head. 

 The spinous dorsal originates a little behind the origin of 

 pectoral and ventral, at a distance from tip of snout nearly equal 

 to one third of total length to caudal base; its base is nearly one 

 half as long as the head; the second spine longest, two fifths as 

 long as the head, the last spine minute, about one sixth as long 

 as the eye. The interspace between the dorsals equals the 

 length of the head without the snout. The second doirsal is in 

 advance of the anal; its base is about one fourth as long as the 

 head; its longest ray equals snout, and its last ray is less than 



