154 



SCOMBERIDiE. MACKARELS. 

 PLAIN BONITO. Auxis valgaris, Cuvier who pronounces 

 it to be Scomber bisus of Rafinesque, and S. rochei of 

 Risso, Ichthyologic, p. 165. Yarrell's Brit. Fishes, 2nd. 

 edition, vol. 1, p. 160. 



By the older Naturalists this species was confounded with 

 two or three others under the general name of Tunny. It 

 is of such rare occurrence in the British seas as not to have 

 been recorded in the first edition of Mr. Yarrell's work. 

 Two specimens afterwards came into the possession of that 

 Gentleman from Yarmouth. A third specimen was taken 

 in a mackarel sean at Looe in June, 1843, and came into 

 the hands of Mr. Clement Jackson ; to whom I amjndebted 

 lor a characteristic outline of its form. 



A second Cornish specimen was taken near Penzance in 

 a mackarel sean, in the beginning of July 1844 : and of it I 

 received the following description, from Mr. Richard Quiller 

 Couch, into whose hands it came. Length eighteen and 

 a half inches, girth behind the first dorsal fin eleven and a 

 half inches. Viewed laterally it has a resemblance to the 

 mackarel, but is more plump, and the tail seems proportion- 

 ally smaller. From the point of the lower jaw to the 

 margin of the gillcovers four and a half inches: both jaws 

 pointed; mouth small, teeth small and fine. Eye large, 

 an inch from the snout. First dorsal five inches from the 

 snout, placed in a fissure which hides it when closed: its 

 fin ra^s somewhat spinous, the first two longest and closely 

 united; from first to second dorsal six inches; the latter 

 crescent shaped. Tail lunated, the vertebrae nearly reaching 

 its edge. Ventral fin resembling the second dorsal; finlets 

 eight above, seven below. Pectoral fin small, stout, in a 

 sulcus on the side ; its origin immediately behind the gill- 

 covers, and anterior of the line of origin of the first dorsal. 

 Abdominal fins short, stout, lying in a sulcus : and as the 

 sulcus is common to both fins they appear as if lying beneath 

 a scale : round which and reaching to the gillcovers is a 

 patch of scale-covered surface, or cuirass, which two inches 

 behind the extent of the pectorals contracts into the lateral 

 line, and being marked in its length by the appearance of 

 stitches, passes on to the tail. The scales on other parts 

 of the body beside the cuirass are less distinctly marked, and 

 smooth. The general colour dark blueisb, the back dis- 

 tinctly, thougli obscurely marbled, the lines running longi- 

 tudinally, with ocellated §pots. 



1>. 9,7. P. 21. V. 6. A. 8. C. 15. 



Mr, Yarrell's figure is represented plain : that of Cuvier 

 ornamented. 



