Description of a New Mackerel. xxix 



Art. IV. — Description of Scomber punctatus, a Species of Mackerel not hitherto recog- 

 nized by Naturalists. By Jonathan Couch, F.L.S., &c. 



The fish, of which I have the pleasure to lay a figure and description before the 

 Society,* is not noticed in the great work on Ichthyology by Cuvier and Valenciennes, 

 and, therefore, may be judged to be of very rare occurrence. 



The family of mackerels has been so restricted by Cuvier thaj, the genus Scomber 

 is distinguished from those of Thynnus, Orcynus, Auxis and Sarda (of all which some 

 specimens have been taken on the Cornish coast), by the absence of a corslet on the 

 body. Restricted thus, there are two species of the genus Scomber, or true mackerels, 

 that are known to visit our shores ; the first, or common mackerel, forming the subject 

 of extensive and prosperous fisheries ; and the second, the Spanish mackerel (Scomber 

 Colias of Mr. Yarrell's 'British Fishes'), of uncertain occurrence, being sometimes 

 taken in quantities of a few scores or hundreds, and at other times not being met with 

 for several years. 



Scomber punctatus. 



This last-named fish is distinguished from the common mackerel by its heavy and 

 less elegantly formed head ; but, remarkably, by numerous regularly defined spots on 

 the belly, of an oblong form, and about the size of the section of a pea, and largest 

 as they run parallel with the lateral line. As this was the only species of mackerel 

 known to naturalists that is marked with numerous defined spots, it was with much 

 probability supposed to be the species briefly described by Rondeletius, under the 

 title of ' du coguoil' in the French edition of his work, p. 192, and ' de colia' of the 

 Latin copy, p. 235 ; and as the work of this ancient naturalist is not of common oc- 

 currence I will add his account of the fish : " K.o\ia$ (Colias) c'est celui, selon mon 

 advis, que Ton appelle a Marseille coguoil, du tout semblable a un maquereau, hors 

 mis seulement qu'il est plus grand e plus espes. II est couvert d'ecailles petites e 

 tenures, e ha les traits du dos courts, e merques de taches noires. II ha une partie 

 de la teste si claire qu'on i voit par le travers les nerfs descendans du cerveau aux 

 jeux, qu'on appelle optique, comme par le travers d'un verre. Aux printems il jette 

 du sang resplendissant comme le sang de la pourpre. C'est un poisson rare en nostre 

 mer, frequent en Hespaigne, e plusieurs autres lieux." Besides the remarkable 

 transparency which he describes, in the skull, of which I observed nothing, there ap- 

 pears to be an obscurity in another part of this description, as compared with either 



* Read before the Natural-History Society of Penzance. 



