6. SERIOLA. 463 



2. Seriola lalandii. 



The Yellow-tail (St. Helena). 

 Seriola lalandii, Cuv. ^ Veil. ix. p. 208. 



aureo-vittata, Schleff. Faun. Jupon. Poiss. p. 115. pi. 62. f. 1 (not 



good). 



D. 7|_L_. A. 0-2 1 -^. 



I 32-34 I 20-21 



Scales very small. The height of the body is 4^-4| in the total 

 length, the length of the head 4J— 4|. The snout is elongate, conical, 

 twice the length of the diameter of the eye. Abdomen broad, not 

 compressed ; the ventrals are of moderate length, their length being 

 2| in the distance between their base and that of the anal. The 

 maxillary reaches somewhat beyond the vertical from the anterior 

 margin of the eye. Coloration imiform. 



From the coast of Brazil across the Atlantic to the Cape of Good 

 Hope ; Japanese Sea. 



a. Forty-one inches long : stuffed. Cape Seas. From Sir A. 



Smith's Collection. 



b. Adult : stuffed. Cape Seas. From Sir A. Smith's Collection. 



c. Half-grown : stuffed. St. Helena {Yellouu-tail). Presented by 



General Hardwicke. 



d. Half- grown : stuffed. 



e. Thirty-seven inches long : stuffed, 

 /. Forty-four inches long : stuffed. 



Seriola duhia, Lowe, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1839, vii. p. 81, and Trans. 

 Zool. Soc. iii. p. 5, is certainly distinct from S. dumeriUi, but it may 

 prove to be identical with S. lalandii. In order to decide this ques- 

 tion, it will be necessary to compare the following notes, which the 

 Rev. R. T. Lowe has communicated to me, with specimens of S. la- 

 landii preserved in spirits : — 



" The length of the single specimen, which had been taken at 

 Madeira, was 29| inches. The thickness of the body is one-half of its 

 height ; the length of the head is contained four times and a half in 

 the total ; the height of the head at the nape is twelve-thirteenths of 

 its length. The gape of the mouth reaches to the anterior margin 

 of the eye, and the lower jaw is rather shorter than the upper. 

 There is a rough tongue-shaped patch down the middle of the tongue, 

 whilst rough spots may be obsen^ed on the rest of its surface. Oper- 

 culum smooth, prseoperculum striate. The length of the pectoral ffn 

 is contained eight times and three-sevenths in the total, that of the 

 first dorsal eleven times and a fourth. The ventral fins are inserted 

 exactly beneath the pectoral. The second dorsal is four times as 

 high anteriorly as the first, the length of the fii-st soft ray being 

 more than half the height of the body. The anal fin conimences 

 before the middle of the second dorsal ; the length of the caudal is 

 contained five times and four-elevenths in the total. 



There is a sufiiciently distinct keel on the tail. Dusky steel-coloured, 

 dark brownish on the back ; no trace of a browoi band from the eye 

 to the operculum ; the first dorsal fin mottled blue and black ; the 



