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VI. Description of the Esox Saitrus. By the Rev. Thomas Rackett. 



M.A.F.R.S.$L.S. 



Read April 6, 1802. 



ESOX SAURUS. 



Jlfsox rostro subulato, maxillis medio hiantibus. 



Tab. V. 

 Rondelet. de piscibus, lib. 8. p. 232. 

 Gesner, lib. 4. p. 468. 

 Raii Syn. Pise. p. 169. 

 Pe?m. Tour Scotland, 8vo. 



Brit. Zool. 3. p. 325. 



Dorsum viridi-caerulescens. Venter argenteus. Mandibula supe- 

 rior paululum recurvata. Pinna dorsalis et analis opposita, 

 pinnulis utrinque sex versus caudam. Cauda bifida. 



The Esox Saurus, Saury Pike, or Skipper, was taken near the 

 Isle of Portland in Dorsetshire, after a hard storm, in the summer 

 of the year 1800. Of the fishermen, one only was acquainted 

 with it, and called it a Skipper. This species, although known 

 to Rondeletius and Gesner, who have figured it, has not been no- 

 ticed by Linnaeus, by Gmelin in the 13th edition of the Systema 

 Natune, nor by Bloch in his valuable work on Fishes. Ray men- 

 tions its having been caught on the Cornish coast. Pennant has 

 given a very indifferent figure of it in his Tour in Scotland, 8vo. 

 and has made use of the same plate in his British Zoology. 



The annexed figure represents the fish of the natural size. 



VII. Description 



