12 SCOMBRID^i. 



A CANTHOPTERI. SCOM BRIDGE. 



THE DOTTED MACKEREL. 



Scomber punctatus, COUCH, Zool. 1849, p. xxix. App. fig. 



,, ID. Rep. to Penz. Nat. Hist. Soc. for 1848, pi. iii. f. 1. 



,, ,, WHITE, Cat. Brit. Mus. p. 30. 



THIS fish was taken in a Mackerel Seine at Looe, in 

 Cornwall, on the 6th of July, 1848, and fortunately fell 

 into the hands of Jonathan Couch, Esq., the able and 

 industrious cultivator of Cornish ichthylogy. As no 

 second example has as yet been met with, and the chief 

 peculiarities of the Dotted Mackerel are its colours 

 and markings, its specific rank may remain a question, 

 until the acquisition of other specimens furnish the 

 means of investigating its internal structure. In the 

 meanwhile Mr. Couch's description is quoted from the 

 Zoologist. The figure is from a drawing by him. 



" The length of the specimen was fifteen inches and a 

 half, and the general proportions w r ere those of the 

 Common Mackerel. Conspicuous scales, marked by 

 minute transverse lines, cover the sides and belly, where 

 none are distinguishable in the common species. There 

 was no corselet, but there was some appearance of it in 

 a line of denser scales above the pectoral fin which 



