402 Mr. F. Day on Orcynus thynniis {L.) . 



agrees with the specimen. The head " seems to be too long 

 from the tip, of the snout to the posterior margin of the oper- 

 culum " (Z. c. p. 328) ; he gives it as about 3^ in the distance 

 to the base of the tail-fin, but I find it to be 3;g- in the large 

 specimen and 3^^- in the smaller fish, neither measurement 

 agreeing with the Pittenweem example. The teeth are com- 

 paratively larger in small than in large examples, and I found 

 them to be about 0*1 inch long in the upper jaw; conse- 

 quently I do not think they are ^^ fancifully represented^ 



The spines of the first dorsal fin " seem to have been 

 unusually long anteriorly in the specimen figured by Day " 

 {I. c. p. 329). In the largest fish I have referred to the 

 length of the first dorsal spine is 6||- of the length of the fish 

 (to the base of the caudal fin), and of the smaller fish S^- ; while 

 it is not quite 8 in my figure. Even Dr. M'lntosh gives the 

 height of the first dorsal as 10^ inches and the length of the 

 fish to the base of the caudal fin at 94 inches. This would be 

 about equal to 8^ ; and as I do not show it more than 8, I 

 cannot agree to its being " unusually long anteriorly." 



Not only does the anal fin in its size, as I have represented 

 it, agree with the specimens, but also in its position, as " a line 

 running vertically from the anterior margin of the anal fin 

 runs behind the second dorsal " (p. 329) in Dr. Mcintosh's 

 specimen, but it does not do so in either of the British- 

 Museum fish. 



Dr. M'lntosh, in the Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1885, xv. 

 p. 433, inserted under the head of Gottus hubalis some remarks 

 of mine on the breeding of C. scorpius, which I now see he 

 returns to the species under which I originally placed them. 

 Professor Cossar Ewart, in the ' Scotch Fishery Reports,' 

 criticised my figure of Serranus cabrilla, and doubted my 

 account of its geographical distribution, asserting that he had 

 obtained it from the north of Scotland ; fortunately he figured 

 the specimen, which showed at a glance that it was Sehastes 

 norvegicus. Possibly when Dr. M'Intosh's fish is figured it 

 will turn out to be a different fish from the tunny ; but 

 if he had looked at the specimens in our national collection 

 before so emphatically condemning my figure, I think he 

 would have satisfied himself that I had only followed nature 

 and the work of the taxidermist, carefully measuring all 

 points and reducing them by the aid of proportional com- 

 passes to the size shown in my illustrated work. 



