344 CATALOGUE OF FISHES. 



A specimen of this rare and handsome fish was found at 

 Newbiggin-by-the-Sea in 1840 by Mr. John Hancock, by whom 

 it was preserved, and has recently (1884) been presented by him 

 to the Museum. It is the most gorgeously-coloured fish taken 

 in our seas, and one of the rarest. 1 Mr. Hancock has often 

 pointed out to me the inaccurate way in which the pectoral fin 

 of the Opah is represented in the figures given by Donovan, 

 Yarrell, and Couch, and the same remark applies to the equally 

 inaccurate figures in Dr. Grunther's Study of Fishes and Frank 

 Buckland's History of British Fishes. In the Opah the very 

 strong, sub-falcate or rather billhook-shaped, .pectoral fins are 

 placed quite perpendicular to the axis of the body, that is, to a 

 line drawn from the mouth to the centre of the caudal fin,, and 

 not obliquely as in the figures given by the above authors. The 

 pectoral fins could, in fact, move only from the side of the body 

 outwards, and they served perhaps as outriggers, and enabled 

 this very thin, flat-sided fish to balance and maintain its body 

 in a vertical position. The pectoral fin of the Madeiran Opah 

 is correctly figured by Lowe in the Fishes of Madeira, but in 

 this species (for it appears to be specifically distinct) the pectoral 

 fin is much smaller and of rather different shape. Also in Mr. 

 Hancock's specimen the large tongue, which is still preserved, 

 was quite smooth, and destitute of papillae or sharp points as 

 described by Donovan and Yarrell and other writers, who seem 

 to have copied their description of the tongue of the Opah from 

 Dr. Mortimer's in Phil. Trans., 1750. 



" The Opah is occasionally taken on the (Yorkshire) coast. 

 One taken at Burlington (1842) weighed fifty-seven pounds, and 

 was two feet ten inches long and one foot seven inches broad." — 

 T. Meynell. Twelve specimens are recorded from the Yorkshire 



1 Naturalists almost run into raptures in attempting to describe this fish. Mr. 

 Pennant says of a specimen caught in Torbay, 1772— "This fish weighed a hundred 

 and forty pounds. The length was four feet and a half; the breadth two feet and a 

 quarter; the greatest thickness only four inches. Its general colour was a vivid 

 transparent scarlet varnish over burnished gold, bespangled with oval silver spots of 

 various sizes. The flesh looked and tasted like beef." 



Mr. Bosc, a French naturalist, uBes the following words: "C'est un magnifique 

 Poisson. Des reflets d' azur, de vert clair, d'argent, se jouent sur un fond d'or, au 

 milieu d'un grand nombre de tachcs couleur de perle ou de saphir." Etc. 



