Zoology.] NATURAL HISTORY OF VICTORIA. {Fishes. 



Plate 28. 



SCOMBER PNEUMATOPHOKUS (De la Roche). 



The Southern Mackerel. 



[Genus SCOMBER (Lin.). (Sub-kingd. Vertebrata. Class Pisces. Order Acanthop- 

 terygii. Earn. Scomberidas.) 



Gen. Char. — Elongate, fusiform ; moutb wide ; first dorsal of slender spines, separated by a 

 distinct interval from the second dorsal, which is composed of soft branched rays, with one 

 spine in front ; five or six finlets behind the dorsal and anal fins. Scales very small. Teeth 

 small on the jaws, vomer, and palate-bones. Sides of the tail ridged. Branchiostegal rays 

 seven. Air bladder simple or absent. Pyloric appendages very numerous. Cosmopolitan, in 

 temperate and warm seas.] 



Description. — Fins: 1st dorsal of 12 slender spines; 2nd dorsal of 1 short spine 

 and 11 soft branched rays; anal of one short spine and 12 soft rays; pectoral, 19; 

 ventral, one spinous and 5 soft rays; caudal, 17 ; 5 finlets behind anal and dorsal fins. 

 Height: 5J to 5 J in total length without caudal fin, or Jth to end of caudal; head 3f 

 in length of body, or 4^ to end of caudal; diameter of eye about 3£ in length of head. 

 Color: back and upper half of sides bluish- and greenish-grey, with about 33 irregular, 

 transverse, flexuous, branching, darker streaks about their own width apart, separating 

 into rounder and more isolated spots along middle of sides^ below which there are very 

 numerous close dark-grey dots or freckles, on a whitish-pearly ground, tinged with 

 yellow, purple, and slight pink reflexions; cheek behind eye yellowish; forehead 

 between eyes whitish; fins dark-greyish. Iris silvery and yellowish. A simple 

 slender air bladder. Scales-, along lateral line, about 200; above lateral line, from 

 front of dorsal fin, 15 ; below lateral line, under 1st dorsal, about 35. Teeth : sub- 

 equal, slender, arched, about 70 in a single row on upper jaw, and 46 on lower jaw 

 (about 18 in a space of 3 lines); a small oval group of about 7 teeth on each side 

 of front of roof of mouth ; a long narrow sigmoid band on each palate-bone. 



Reference. — Cuv. and Val., Hist. Nat. Pois., v. 8, p. 36 ; Tern. Faun. Jap. 

 Pois., t. 47, f. 1. 



I cannot find the slightest difference between our Hobson's Bay 

 and Mediterranean specimens on comparison. Steindacher, it will be 

 remembered, believes S. pneumatophorus to be the young of S. colzas 

 (Sitzungsberichte d. Akad. Wissenschaften zu Wien., lvii., p. 353). 

 The speckling of the lower part of the sides and belly is, when alive, 

 like that of the Spanish Mackerel (S. colias), but when preserved 

 for some time in spirit these disappear, leaving the belly and lower 

 part of sides plain silvery, as described in the Scomber Australasicus 

 of Cuvier and Val., the claims of which to rank as a distinct 

 species seem to me very doubtful. The eyelids leave the middle 

 third of the eye bare. The preoperculum is radiatingly striated, 

 and of yellowish-bronzy tint. 



[43] 



