18 SCOMBRlDvE. 



A CA NTHOPTERI. SCOMBRID^E. 



THE PELAMID. 



Pelamys sarda, La Pelamide, Cuv. et VAL. t. viii. p. 149, tab. 217. 



,, veia Aristotelis, KONDELET, 238. A.D. 1554. 



Pelamis, SALVIAN, 123. A.D. 1554. 



Thunnus, ALDROVAND, 213. A.D. 1640. 



Pelamys Belloni, WILLUGHBT, 180. A.D. 1686. 



Scomber pontic us, PALLAS, Zoogr. vol. iii. p. 217. A.D. 1831. 



,, ,, BLOCK, 334. 



Pelamys sarda, La Pelamide, WEBB et BERTH. Can. Poiss. p. 50. 

 Scomber sarda, Bonetta, MITCHILL, New York Trans, vol. i. p. 428, 



No. 8. 



PELAMYS. Generic Characters. The general shape of the members of this 

 group is fusiform, and they have a cutaneous keel on each side of the slender 

 part of the tail. On the coracoidal or pectoral region, scales of larger size 

 form a corselet ; elsewhere the scales are small and tender, passing, on the 

 belly, into soft nacry integument. The dorsals are contiguous ; and the first 

 one has its rays, which are spinous, connected by a continuous membrane : 

 behind the second dorsal there are numerous detached finlets, and one or two 

 fewer behind the anal. The branchiostegals are seven. These, and other 

 characters, they have in common with the Tunnies (Thynni) ; but they are 

 distinguished by having longer and stronger subulate teeth on the jaws, widely 

 set. The head is conical, with a rather fine apex formed by the symphyses of 

 the equally long jaws. 



THIS fine fish has a wide distribution, having been 

 taken of full size on the Russian coasts of the Black 

 Sea, in all districts of the Mediterranean, and on both 

 sides of the Atlantic on the east side from the Cape 

 Verds and Canaries, northwards along the coast of Spain, 



