SERIOLA COSMOPOLITA. 77 



SERIOLA COSMOPOLITA. — Cm. et Val. 



Plate XT. Fig. 1. 



Specific Characters. Body compressed ; back slightly and belly much 

 arched ; pale green above, silver)^-white below, with pinkish-coloured reflections ; 

 a dark spot at the opercle, and another above the root of the caudal fin. D. 8 - 

 1-27. P. 18. V. 1-5. A. 2-1-27. C. 17. 



Synonymes. Seriola cosmopolita, Cuv. et Val., Hist. Nat. Poiss., torn. ix. p. 219, pi. 259. 

 Seriola cosmopolita, DeKay, Zool. N. Y., part iv. p. 129. 

 Seriola cosmopolita, Storer, Synops., p. 106. 

 Green Mackerel, Vulgo. 



Description. This fish belongs to the section of the genus Seriola with very 

 short ventral fins, long, slender, falciform pectorals, and a compressed body. Its 

 form without the tail is elliptical, with the lower line of the ellipse most arched, 

 though both the lines of the back and belly meet at the snout under the same 

 angle ; the body is thin along the back, and almost carinate at the belly ; its thick- 

 est part is just below the lateral line, so that a transverse section appears as a nar- 

 row ellipse, broadest above. The head is short, elevated, uncovered with scales, 

 and the snout narrow, though rounded. 



The eye is very large, and is placed midway between the posterior angle of the 

 opercle and the tip of the lower jaw, and is just its diameter from each, with its 

 lower margin above the median plane of the head. The pupil is dark, the iris 

 golden, intermixed with green, and has its posterior margin covered with a thin, 

 nictitating membrane, which, however, does not encroach upon the pupil. The 

 nostrils are midway between the eye and snout ; the posterior is large and oval ; 

 the anterior is a narrow fissure, and both are near the facial outline, and on a line 



