358 SCOMBEIDiE. 



e. Adult : stiifFed : bad state. Thames. 



/. Adult female: skin. South Devon. From Mr. Yarrcll's CoUeetion. 

 (I, li. Adult: skins. English coast. 

 ";. Adult: stuffed. Frith of Forth. 



A-. Adult. Boston, U. S. Presented by B. Winstone, Esq. 

 /. Adult. Boston, U. S. Presented by B. Winstone, Esq. 

 m, n. Adult : skins. 



0, p. Adult : skins. From Mr. Yarrell's Collection. 

 q. Young. 



r. Half-gTown : skin. From Mr. Yarrell's Collection. — The pos- 

 terior spurious dorsal and anal fins divided into two. 

 s. Half-grown : skin. From Gronow's CoUeetion. 

 t, M. Adult : skeletons. 



Skeleton. — The upper surface of the head is rather flat anteriorly 

 and between the orbits, whilst five ridges run along its posterior 

 portion. The middle of these ridges is obtuse, and formed by the 

 suture of the frontal bones ; it is continued over the occipital, but 

 very feeble. The bones situated on the side of this crest are very 

 thin, but not pierced as in the Timny. The vomer and the palatine 

 bones are rather broad, and the former is slightly concave along its 

 medial line. The jaw-bones are thin : the maxillary is broadest in 

 the middle, without supplementaiy bone ; the intermaxillary tapers 

 from its base towards its extremity, and has the posterior processes 

 very short. There is a vndo open space between the articular and 

 the dentary bones of the mandibula ; muciferous channel none. The 

 praeoperculum is very broad, the sjiace between its margin and in- 

 terior ridge being unusually wide. The operculum is ii-regularly 

 shaped ; it has an upper rounded margin, a slight posterior notch, and 

 an acute infeiior angle. The suboperculum has a nearly vertical 

 situation, and the interoperculum a horizontal one, so that theii" 

 margins form nearly a right angle. The praeorbital is elongate, 

 subcUiptical, semitransparent. 



The suprascapula is bifurcate, and much longer than the scapula ; 

 the radius has a small ovate opening ; a wide free space between 

 ulna and humerus. The coracoid is broad, tapering infcriorly. 

 Each of the piibic bones is formed by three feeble lamellae ; they 

 diverge anteriorly, because they are not fixed to the symphysis of 

 the humeral bones, but to each of them separately. 



There are fourteen abdominal and seventeen caudal verfebrce, both 

 ])0]'tions being of nearly equal length. The vertebra are rather 

 elongate, and there is no keel visible on the posterior of the caudal 

 portion ; the neural and haemal spines are frail, and the interneurals 

 and uiterhfemals very short and feeble. The ribs are well developed, 

 and provided with epipleurals ; the eleventh to the fourteenth ver- 

 tebra3 have the hajmal canal completely closed, the ribs being sus- 

 pended at its abdominal side, close together, ^vhilst the cjnpleurals 

 are fixed at the centre of the vertebrte. This arrangement is still 

 more developed in T/n/nnvs th)/nnns ; and Cuvier says that the latter 

 fish has two series of ribs on each side. The first iulerlueraal is 

 suspended at the fifteenth vertebra. 



