394 



ESOCID.E. 



ABDOMINAL 

 MALACOPTERYGII. 



ESOCIDJE. 



THE SAURY PIKE. SKIPPER. 



GOWDNOOK. Scotland. 



Scomberesox saiirus, Saury, Flem. Brit. An. p. 184, sp. 57. 



,, ,, CuviER, Regne An. t. ii. p. 285. 



Esox ,, Saury Pike, Penn. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 430, pi. 75. 



,, ,, Skipper Pike, Don. Brit. Fish. pi. 116. 



Generic Characters. — The species of this genus, instituted by Lac6pede, 

 have the same structure of the jaws as those of Belone, last described ; and are 

 similar also in the form of body and scales, with a keel-like edge to the belly ; 

 but the posterior portions of the dorsal and anal fins are divided, forming 

 finlets, as in the Mackerel. 



The Saury Pike, or Skipper, was first described as 

 a British species by Ray : those he saAv were taken on the 

 Cornish coast. It was also known to Rondeletius and Ges- 

 ner; but has not been noticed either by Linnseus, Gmelin, 

 or Bloch. The Rev. Mr. Low, in his Natural History 

 of Orkney, says, that the year preceding that in which he 

 wrote his Fauna Orcadensis^ such a glut of these fish set 

 into the head of Kerston Bay, that they could be taken 



