FISHES OF HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 
171 
124. Auxis thazard (Lac^pcde). Frigate Mackerel. Fig. 63. 
Head 3.6 in length; depth 4.75; eye 5 in head; snout 4.1; interorbital 4.2; maxillary 3; D. x-12-vm; 
A. 13— vi i; gill rakers 30 10, serrate, longest nearly equal to eye. 
Body robust, scarcely compressed, abruptly contracted at caudal peduncle; least .depth of latter 
1.3 in least width, strongly keeled; head long, subconic; snout pointed; jaws equal; small teeth in a 
single series in each jaw; tongue long, rounded, free, a thin flap on each upper side, narrowing poste¬ 
riorly and giving a trough-like appearance; maxillary reaching below anterior edge of pupil, slipping 
under preorbital for nearly its entire length; eye moderate, high, anterior; interorbital flat; operele 
very broad; tins small; dorsal spines rather stiff, longest equal to snout and eye; soft dorsal very 
low, its longest ray about equal to eye; caudal crescent-shaped, lobes equal; longest anal ray equaling 
base of fin, its origin under posterior base of soft dorsal; pectoral short, reaching slightly beyond 
ventrals, past middle of first dorsal, longest ray 2.5 in head, its upper base on a line with upper edge 
of pupil; ventrals 2.6 in head, base under upper base of pectoral; scales of corselet and along anterior 
dorsal region comparatively large. 
Color in alcohol, blackish blue above, lighter below, becoming silvery on belly; color of fins same 
as adjacent body color. 
The above description based chiefly upon a specimen (No. 04021) 10.5 inches king, from Ililo. 
We have a specimen (No. 04027) 14.5 inches long, from Honolulu, and have examined one obtained 
by Dr. Jenkins at Honolulu. The species was found abundant at Hilo. It, is taken with the trolling 
hook in the open sea, and is one of the best game fishes of the islands. 
Scomber thazard Lucepede, Hist, Nat. Poiss., Ill, 9, 1801, between 6 and 7 S. lat., on coast of New Guinea. 
Scomber rochci Risso, Ichth. Nice, 165,1810, Nice. 
Scomber bis it* Rafinesque, Caratteri, 45, 1810, Palermo. 
Thynntis rochcanus Risso, Eur. Merid., Ill, 417, 1827, Nice. 
Auxis vulgaris Cuvier & Valenciennes, Hist. Nat. Poiss., VIII, 139,1831, Mediterranean. 
Auxis tapeinosoma Bleeker, Fauna Japan, in Nat. Tyds. Ned. Ind., VI, 1854, 408, Nagasaki. 
A uxis thynnoides Bleeker, Nat. Tyds. Ned. Ind., VIII, 301, 1855, Ternute, V, Ternate. 
Jims thazard , Jordan & Evermann, Fish. North & Mid. Amer., 867, fig. 365, PI. CXXXIII, 1896; Jordan & Evermann, Amer. 
Food and Game Fishes, 277, 1902, with figure; Jenkins, Bull. U. S. Fish Comm., XXII, 1902 (Sept. 23, 1903), 441 
(Honolulu). 
Genus 99. GYMNOSARDA Gill. The Little Tunnies. 
This genus differs from Thunnus (1) in the absence of teeth on the vomer; (2) in the complete 
absence of scales outside of the corselet, while in Thunnus of the same size the skin is covered with 
small scales; the limits of the corselet in the tunny and albicore are obscure, so that it can not properly 
be said to be a distinct character in those species; and (3) in an important osteological character, 
namely, the peculiar development, in the form of a network or trellis, of a portion of the abdominal 
part of the backbone, between the vertebrae proper and the hsemapophyses; vertebrae 38. Species of 
smaller size than the tunnies, also pelagic and of little value as food. 
Gymnosarda Grill, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila. 1862,125 (unicolor). 
Thynnus Lutken, Spolia Atlantica, 460, 1880 (pclamys): not of Cuvier & Valenciennes. 
