242 THE COMMERCIAL SEA FISHES OF 



The Saury (Scomfyresox saurus). 



Names. Skipper, saury, saury-pike, skip-jack, skopster, 

 halion. In Scotland, gowdnook, gosnick, Egyptian herring. 



B. xiii., D. 10-12 -f- v.-vi., V. 6, A. 12-13 + vi.-vii. 



Length of head 3^ to 34. ; of caudal fin, 9^ ; height of body 

 lO-i- in the total length. Eyes. 2-i- to 2-f- diameters in the 

 postorbital length of the head, 44- diameters from the end 

 of the upper jaw, and I diameter apart. Jaws in the adult 

 curved slightly and gradually upwards, the upper being a 

 little the shorter. Posterior extremity of the maxilla not 

 covered by the preorbital. Teeth. Fine ones in the jaws ; 

 none on the vomer, palatines, or tongue. Fins. The 

 dorsal commences slightly behind the beginning of the last 

 third of the total length, its anterior rays rather higher than 

 half that of the body below it, the finlets continued almost 

 to the base of the caudal fin. Ventrals inserted midway 

 between the angle of the mouth or the front edge of the 

 eye and the posterior end of the caudal fin, the latter being 

 deeply forked. Scales. A somewhat keel-like edge com- 

 mences on either side of the fish on a level with the lower 

 edge of the gill-covers, and passes along the entire length 

 of the body. Scale-like appendages over the middle of 

 the base of the caudal fin. Colours. Back of a deep rich 

 blue, below which is a broad burnished and shining silvery 

 band, having a dark lower edge, abdomen silvery, upper 

 fins dark coloured, lower ones and pectoral yellowish. 



Much the same evolution of the jaws obtains in this fish 

 as described in the gar-pike. 



Varieties. Valenciennes separates the Mediterranean 

 from the oceanic form, under the belief that the former has 

 no air-bladder. Professor Liitken (Spolia Atlantica) has 

 shown, however, that this organ may be present in the 



