374 BULLETIN 189, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



inshore waters. The Mission measured 111 fish, which varied from 

 450 to 720 mm. in length, the average being 562 mm. The largest 

 fish measured may be near the maximum size attained. 



Three species of Sarda from the Pacific coast of America have been 

 recognized by some authors. However, I fail to recognize more than 

 two among the Peruvian specimens and did not find a third species 

 among specimens from Panama and California that were compared. 

 The extent of the corselet in comparison with the length of the 

 pectoral, a character supposedly differentiating S. chilensis and 

 S. lineolata (see Walford, 1936, p. 9; 1937, p. 22), is entirely unreliable. 

 Among specimens examined from Peru and elsewhere the demarkation 

 of the corselet sometimes is indistinct, and it may not be equally 

 distinct or equally long on both sides of the same fish. 



Range. — Puget Sound to Chile. (The range given is based on the 

 belief, supported by the limited study reported above, that S. lineolata 

 is not valid.) 



SARDA VELOX Meek and Hildebrand 



BONITO 



Sarda chilensis Gilbert and Starks (not of Cuvier and Valenciennes), 1904, 



p. 68, Panama Bay (diagnosis; abundance). 

 Sarda velox Meek and Hildebrand, 1923, p. 320, pi. 24, Panama City (original 



description; compared with S. chilensis). — Walford, 1937, p. 23, pi. 38, 



fig. b (diagnosis; distribution).— Schmitt and Schultz, 1940, p. 3, Galdpagos 



Islands. 



Head 3.2; depth 4.25; D. XVni-16-Vni; A. U, 12-VI; P. 24. 



Body fairly elongate, robust, its greatest width about two-thirds its 

 depth, tapering strongly posteriorly; caudal peduncle depressed, with a 

 prominent lateral keel and two smaller ones on base of fin, depth of 

 peduncle 11.8 in head; head compressed, convex above; snout long, 

 pointed, 3.0 in head; eye 6.7; interorbital 3.9; mouth large, slightly 

 oblique, terminal ; maxillary fully half width of eye, reaching opposite 

 posterior margin of eye, 1.95 in head; teeth in jaws in a single series, 

 somewhat compressed at base, curved inward, pointed, a series of 

 similar but smaller teeth on palatines; gill rakers stocky, somewhat 

 more than half length of eye, nine on lower and only two developed 

 on upper limb of first arch; lateral line wavy; scales minute, some- 

 what enlarged, though more or less embedded in region of pectoral, 

 forming an indefinite corselet; first dorsal composed of slender spines, 

 the anterior ones moderately elevated, the posterior ones extending 

 little above dorsal groove, the second spine longest, about equal to 

 length of snout, origin of fin a little in advance of pectoral, its distance 

 from tip of snout 3.2 in length; second dorsal moderately elevated 

 anteriorly, the last ray somewhat enlarged, origin of fin about equi- 

 distant from origin of first dorsal and seventh finlet; anal origin about 

 under base of last ray of second dorsal; ventral rather small, 3.8 in 



