120 DR. RICHARDSON'S DESCRIPTION OF AUSTRALIAN FISH. 



the true atun of the Cape of Good Hope, the number was uniformly twenty. G. Forster's 

 figure in the Banksian Library (2. No. 222.) is entitled ' Scomber dentex' and ' Scomber 

 lanceolatus\' and a copy of it being transmitted to Cuvier under the latter name, ap- 

 peared to him to have a strong resemblance to atun. The specimen was obtained 

 in Queen Charlotte's Sound, where it received the appellation of ' Maga' from the na- 

 tives. Solander's ' Pisces Australise' contains an account of a Thyrsites taken in Mur- 

 derer's Bay of the same island, which is most probably identical with Forster's. The fol- 

 lowing extract of his description contains the most essential parts of it : — " Scomber 

 splendens. Piscis I5 pedalis, totus nitens, splendens, supra ex argenteo-nigro ccerulescens, 

 subtu^ totus argenteus. Iris argentea, nebulis fuscis. Pupilla nigra. Dorsi suprema pars 

 plumbea. Pinned primes dorsalis membrana inter singulos radios oblique dimidiate -nigricans, 

 alias pellucida. Pinna secunda et pinna ani pelluddee. Pinna pectorales plumbece. Pinna 

 ventrales albidee. Pinnula spuria utrinque sex pellucida. Pinna caudalis furcata, pallide 

 plumbea. Membrana pinna dorsalis prioris tenerrima et radii fragilissimi. — Br. 7 ; P. 14 ; 

 V. 1|5 ; D. 20|— 1|11 and VI. ; A. 1|11 and VI. ; C. 18. — Linea lateralis, a capite pone 

 medium dorsi valde approximata dein descendens." (Op. citat. p. 29.) 



Messrs. Quoy and Gaimard have also described and figured a New Zealand Thyrsites, 

 taken in Basmann's Bay. They state the length of the fish to vary from two to three feet, 

 the dorsal to be black, and they represent it as lower than that of atun. They give the 

 numbers of the rays as follows :— D. 19 - 1 1 - VI. ; A. 1 1 - VI. ; C. 24 ; P. 12 ; V. 115. 

 The colours are steel-blue above, becoming almost black on the head, and changing to 

 silvery on the sides and belly. The authors of the ' Histoire des Poissons' not having 

 seen any of these New Zealand fish, hesitate to say whether they differ specifically from 

 one another or from that which inhabits the seas of the Cape of Good Hope. 



Mr. Lempriere's second cask of specimens contained a Thyrsites, which he stated in 

 his letter to be known at Port Arthur as the ' Baracoota,' and that a second species is 

 taken in that harbour which has lower dorsal spines, and is more esteemed as an article 

 of diet. From the existence of some slight discrepancies between that specimen and 

 the description of atun in the ' Histoire des Poissons,' I was led to characterize it as 

 distinct in the paper read before the Society on the 25th of June, 1839 ; but the receipt 

 of a second example since that time induces me to believe that the species varies in 

 some minor particulars, though the general aspect continues the same, and that it is 

 safer to consider the Van Diemen's Land fish as a variety of the Cape atun. 



The proportion of the depth of the body, length of the head, and other dimensions, 

 to the total length, agree with those ascribed to the atun, except that the diameter of 

 the eye is more nearly a fifth part of the length of the head than a sixth, and that the 

 thickness of the body is less than two-thirds of the depth, the fish being therefore more 

 compressed : the width at the flat nape is however greater, and even exceeds two-thirds 



' The Scomber lanceolatus of Solander is the Cybixim Solandri of Cuvier. 



