108 MR. J. T. CUNNINGHAM ON MARINE FISHES [Jan. 18, 



'Amelia..' ' Only alalonga has hitherto been recognized in the 

 Mediterranean and on the east coast of North America. It is 

 possible that all three species occur in the West Indies ; in fact, 

 Poey in his Enum. Pise. Oubens. 1875 mentions Orcynus albacora 

 Lowe and another species, subulatus, in which the length of the 

 pectoral is contained five times in the total length to base of 

 caudal. This subulatus may be identical with Lowe's obesus, but 

 Poey's description is insufficient to prove it. All the three species 

 exist in the Pacific Ocean. In Temminck and Schlegel's ' Fauna 

 Japonica,' Pisces, published in 1850, two species are described as 

 occurring off the coasts of Japan, Thynnus macropterus and T. sibi. 

 The former is seen, both from the description and the figure, to be 

 identical with T. albacora of Lowe and with the common albacore 

 of St. Helena. The elongation of the second dorsal and the 

 ventral (anal), and the yellow colour of these fins and of the 

 finlets, are specially mentioned and well shown in the figure, 

 The corselet is stated to be still less distinct than in T. sibi. The 

 pectorals are a little more than a fourth of the total length, and in 

 the figure reach to the middle of the second dorsal and are broad 

 in the proximal half. Jordan and Evermann, in ' Fishes of North 

 and Middle America,' give this T. macropterus as a synonym of 

 Germo alalonga. The Thynnus sibi of Schlegel a/ppears to be 

 identical with the coffrey of St. Helena, the T. obesus of Lowe. 

 The characters given are : — Second dorsal and anal not elongated, 

 first false fins united to second dorsal and anal, pectorals shorter 

 than in alalonga, fins blackish, 8 free finlets above and 8 below. 

 Schlegel suggests that this form may be the Pacific representative 

 of alalonga. 



In 1897 Kitahara, a Japanese naturalist, identified and figured 

 not only the T. sibi and T. macropterus of Temminck and Schlegel, 

 but also the alalonga, under the name Orcynus germo Lacep.,and 

 the common tunny. In the English descriptions the characters 

 are not given in much detail, but the large size of the eye in 

 T. sibi is mentioned (" eye about one-sixth in the head "), and the 

 pectoral reaching to below the end of the first dorsal. This length 

 of pectoral, both in description and figure, is rather less than in 

 the coffrey of St. Helena; but the fish shows distinctly the stouter 

 form of body which characterizes the coffrey. None of the figures, 

 not even that of the common tunny, show a corselet. The figure 

 of macropterus shows the characteristic elongation of the second 

 dorsal and ventral, but that of Orcynus germo ( = alalonga) does 

 not show the pectoral so narrow or so curved as in the bastard of 

 St. Helena, although it shows the characteristic length. 



In 1905 Jordan and Seale mention, in a list of the fishes of Samoa 

 (Bull. U.S. Bur. Fish. vol. xxv.), the species alalonga under the 

 name Germo germo, and consider it synonymous with the Thynnus 

 sibi of Schlegel, but distinguish Germo macropterus of Schlegel, 

 mentioning its elevated second dorsal and anal and the citron- 

 yellow colour of its finlets. On the coast of California only 

 alalonga has been identified, under the name Orcynus pacificus, 



