118 



TEMNODON. 



Established by Cuvier on a fish remarkable by its first dorsal 

 being very low, formed of eight feeble, continuous spines, but 

 often difficult to see. 



TEMNODON SALTATOE. 



Temnodon saltator, Guv. Sf Veil, v. ix., p. 225, pi. 260. 

 Scomber saltator, Bl. Sch., p. 35. 



(Skip Jade.) 



This is one of the most common fish in the market ; it is gene- 

 rally found at Melbourne of a small size, but I have seen one 

 in September, which was 2£ feet in length. 



Grenerally it is of a very bright silvery colour, with the upper 

 parts of the body, head, and upper fins of a dark olive ; the lower 

 fins being white ; the eye silvery or rather yellow. 



This fish appears to be found in all the warm and temperate 

 regions of the world, but it is not certain that several species are 

 not mixed together. In some specimens I only see seven rays 

 to the dorsal, and in a few the teeth are much more set apart 

 than in others. I have also seen several times, at Melbourne, 

 small specimens, called by the fishmongers Snubgall, which have 

 the anterior part of the head shorter, and much more convex over 

 the eye. 



At the Cape of Good Hope, where it is very common, it is 

 very often found of large dimensions. The young specimens are 

 very brilliant, blue on the back, and green on the upper part of 

 the head. The old ones are of a lead colour on the upper parts. 



NEPTONEMUS. 



Not one of the Australian fishes I have studied has caused 

 such trouble to identify as this ; it is common on the Melbourne 

 Market, and it is not likely, therefore, that it has escaped the 

 attention of collectors and naturalists, but in the most modern 

 authors I can find no description that can apply to it. 



It has much resemblance to the genus Tracliynotus, and also 

 with Psenes, but it differs from the first in having no first dorsal 

 spine directed forwards, nor its two first anal spines separated 



