74. SCOMBRID^ SCOMBER. 
423 
pointed anteriorly. Mouth rather large; premaxillary not protractile ; 
maxillary without supplemental hone ; jaws with sharp teeth, large or 
small. Yomer and palatines toothed or not. Preopercle entire ; opercle 
unarmed. Gill-openings very wide, the membranes not united, free from 
the isthmus. Gill-rakers usually long. Pseudobranchim present, large. 
A slit behind fourth gill. Branchiostegals 7. Dorsal fins 2, the first 
of rather weak spines, depressible in a groove, the second similar to the 
anal ; anal spines weak ; last raj’S of dorsal and anal usually detached 
and separate, forming series of finlets ; caudal peduncle extremely slender, 
usually keeled, the caudal lobes abruptly div'erging, falcate; ventral fins 
moderate, thoracic, I, 5. Yertebnn in greater number than in Carangidce, 
the number more than 25. Pyloric coeca numerous. Air-bladder fre- 
quently absent. Coloration metallic, often brilliant. General?; si^ecies 
about 70. Fishes of the high seas, many of them cosmoimlitau, and all 
having a wide range. Most of them are valued as food-fishes. 
(Scomhridce lit. aud Triehiuridw lit. Giiuther, ii, 349-373.) 
a. Finlets present ; dorsal spines less than 20. (Scomhrince.) 
i. Spinous dorsal short (of less than 12 spines), remote from the second. 
c. Vomer and jjalatiues with teeth; corselet obsolete Scomber, 213. 
cc. Vomer and palatines toothless; corselet well dev eloped Auxis, 214. 
l)h. Spinous dorsal lonj:; (of more than 12 sxvines), contiguous to the second. 
d. Caudal keel present. 
e. Corselet imx)erfect or obsolete; teeth of jaws strong; minute teeth on 
vomer aud palatines Sco.mberomorus, 215. 
ee. Corselet developed. 
/. Palatine teeth strong; vomer toothless; vertebr® normal. ..Sarda, 216. 
jy. Palatine teeth villiform. 
g. Vomer with teeth; vertebrae normal, the lower foramina small. 
Orcyxes, 217. 
gg. Vomer toothless; .abdominal vertebrie with the lower foramina en- 
larged aud a portion between the vertebrae i)roi)erand the haemaiJojdiy- 
ses develoi^ed in the form of a net-work or trellis Euthynnus, 218. 
213.— SCO:?IBER Linnaeus. 
, Maclcerels. 
(Linnaeus, Syst. Nat. 1758: tyjve Scomber scombrus L.) 
Body fusiform, rather elongate, somewhat compressed; caudal j)e- 
duncle slender, with two small keels on each side. Mouth wide, with 
a single row of rather small, slender teeth iu each jaw aud ou the vomer 
and palatines; maxillarj^ slipping under the broad preorbital. Scales 
very small, not forming a corselet. First dorsal of 7-12 feeble spines, 
separated from the second by an interspace greater than the base of the 
fin; second dorsal small, followed by 5-9 detached finlets; anal similar 
to second dorsal, with similar finlets; pectorals and veutrals small, the 
