218 ACANTHOPTERYGII. MACKEREL FAMILY. 



and a third has been more recently captured on the 

 Devonshire coast. It is a diminutive fish, rarely 

 exceeding four inches in length : the largest speci- 

 men possessed by the authors of the Hist. Nat. 

 des Poisson was six French inches, whilst the speci- 

 men last alluded to was nine inches English. It is 

 of the same general appearance as the Doree, with 

 a more projecting moutli. Our French authorities 

 state that its general colour is reddish brown, more 

 or less intense ; our English, that the upper part of 

 the back and sides are pale carmine, still lighter 

 beneath, and passing to silvery white on the abdo- 

 men ; the body being divided into seven transverse 

 orange-coloured bands, reaching three-fourths of the 

 distance from the back downwards ; the Mount Bay 

 specimen is said to have had no bands : the fin-rays 

 are of the same colour as the back, the membranes 

 are much lighter. 



Mr. Yarrell states, in both editions of his excellent 

 work, that he is not aware that any figure from 

 nature, of this fish, has hitherto been published, 

 except the original one given by Rondelet. In 

 the tenth volume of the great French work so 



o 



often alluded to, published in the year 1835, in 

 the Avis au Belieur., Capros aper is numbered as 

 Plate 281, and a very beautiful plate, with details, 

 is supplied in the succeeding volume : the fish was 

 in the hands of the authors, and assuredly Werner's 

 drawing is from nature. In this the lateral line, 

 which Mr. Yarrell says is not observable, is distinctly, 

 although somewhat faintly, traced, and we doubt 



