94 ACANTHOPTERYGII. 



am quite positive that we have two species of Scomber on this coast. Caranx 

 trachurus has been scarce here this year.' " 



I should mention that the late Mr. John Nimmo, when examining with 

 me the figui'es in Yarrell's British Fishes, stated that the Garfish {Be- 

 lone vulgaris) is called Spanish 3Iackerel by the fishermen at Roundstone. 



The Tunny, Thymms vulgaris, Cuv. and Val. 



The following note, contributed by me to the Annals of Nat. Hist, 

 (vol. V. p. 9), contained the only information which I then possessed re- 

 specting the tunny, as an Irish species : — 



" Dr. Jacob (Professor of Anatomy in the Royal College of Surgeons) of 

 Dublin informs me, that during the herring season, about twelve years ago, he 

 purchased a specimen of this fish, about 2 feet in length, (and evidently a recent 

 capture,) from a fisherman who supplied him with the rare species he procured, 

 and whose ordinary fishing-ground was off Dublin Bay, within forty miles of 

 the metropolis." 



In the Autumn of 1841, a large tunny was obtained in Ballyholme 

 Bay, near Bangor, in the County of DoMn. Full particulars of its cap- 

 ture were given in the Northern JVhig newspaper, of 4th Nov., 1841, 

 from which I take the annexed extract : — 



" It measured 8 feet 3 inches in length, 5 feet 4 inches in girth, and was esti- 

 mated by several gentlemen who saw it to be fully 300 lbs. M-eight. It was 

 first observed by a farmer in the neighbourhood, floundering on the sand in a 

 place wliere the tide was rapidly ebbmg ; and, from the powerful struggles and 

 tremendous plunges which it made when it found the water leaving it, seemed 

 much larger than it really was." 



The Bonito, or Stripe-Bellied Tunny, Thynnus Pelamys, 

 Cuv. and Val. 

 Of this species, which is rarely captured in the British seas, an ex- 

 ample, taken on the coast of Wexford some years ago, was sent in a fresh 

 state to the Royal Dublin Society, and is preserved in their Museum ; its 

 length is 29 inches. 



Dr. Harvey, in his Cork Fauna, gives the following note : — 



" T. Pelamys, Linn, (sp.) (?)Bonito. My friend, Dr. BuUen, informs me 

 that he saw and exammed an indi\idual of this species, which was taken at 

 Kinsale, some years since." 



In June, 1850, 1 saw a fine specimen of this fish in Mr. Yarrell's collec- 

 tion, sent to him by Mr. Bennett, from the South of Ireland, which was 

 thus noticed in the Cork Constitution of 1st Sept., 1849 : — 



" A specimen of the Bonito, a tropical fish rarely found upon our shores, 

 was taken, on Monday last, in the meshes of a salmon net at Bennett's Court. 

 It has been forwarded to Mr. Yarrell, from whose Histoiy of British Fishes the 

 following description has been adapted to the present subject, which is a trifle 

 larger than the one described in that work : — This specimen is 294 inches long ; 

 21 inches round, close behind the pectoral fins ; head conical, ending in a point 

 at the nose ; under-jaw projecting ; teeth very small and close, like a file ; mouth 

 small ; tongue flat and thin ; nostrils obscure — and in a depression ; gill -covers 

 of two plates. Body round to the vent; from thence tapering to the tail ; near 

 the tail depressed; eye elevated, round, near an inch in diameter ; iris silvery ; 

 from the nose to the pectoral fin 9'| inches ; the fin pointed, 3 inches long, 

 received into a groove, in which another inch or inch and half of this fin might 

 have remained simk — first dorsal fin 1\ inches long, 4| inches high, lodged in a 

 groove. The body is most solid opposite the second dorsal, which fin and the 

 anal are falcate; weight, 19^ lbs. ; colour, deep azure blue on the back, with 



