TUNNY. 
99 
between 17 % (in young specimens) and 11*5 % (in old) 
of the length of the head or between 48 % and 32 % 
of the length of the snout. The adipose eyelid, which 
is sometimes scarcely distinguishable, forms an oval 
opening for them. The anterior nostril is a small 
round hole on a level with the superior margin of the 
eye and about half-way between the eye and the tip 
of the snout: the posterior nostril, as is generally the 
case in the family, is a narrow perpendicular slit, its 
distance from the eye and its length being about equal 
to the diameter of the pupil. The lower margin of the 
operculum and the hind margin of the interoperculum 
meet at the middle of the curved posterior margin of the 
preoperculum in almost the same curve, the one upwards 
and the other downwards, over the exterior of the sub- 
operculum, the hind margin of which forms the greater 
part of the posterior edge of the gill-opening. The 
interoperculum, which forms the whole lower edge of 
the gill-opening, is of about the same length as the 
lower jaw. When the gill-openings are closed, the one 
interoperculum touches the other or even overlaps it. 
The height of the unpaired tins varies with age, 
the second dorsal and the anal fins being lower in 
youth than the first dorsal, while in old specimens 
they are higher than it. Their height varies, according 
to McCoy between 9 % and 12 % of the length of the 
body. The relative length of the dorsal and anal fins, 
on the contrary, diminishes with age: the length of the 
first dorsal sinks, according to McCoy from 23 % 
to 21 % of the length of the body, and its distance 
from the tip of the snout from 33 % or 35 % to 30 %. 
The length of the pectoral fins increases during youth, 
but afterwards diminishes with age from 20 % to 15 
% of the length of the body, as is the case even with 
the Royal Museum’s specimen 236 cm. in length. The 
length of the ventral fins, on the other hand, increases, 
both according to McCoy’s measurements and according 
to the specimen in the Royal Museum, from 8 to 10 
% of the length of the body. 
Of the internal organs the pyloric appendages and 
the air-bladder are especially remarkable. The former 
are 5 in number and branched repeatedly. They are 
sometimes 0 so surrounded and united with fat and 
blood-vessels by a connective tissue that they form 
a large gland. The air-bladder, according to Malm*, 
has two large, elongate processes in front and two 
smaller ones behind c . 
The colouring is a more or less dark, lustrous 
blue on the back, and on the sides and belly gray, 
sometimes thickly strewn with large silvery spots. The 
first dorsal, the pectoral and the ventral fins dark 
brown, the caudal a lighter brown. The second dorsal 
and the anal fins orange, the finlets yellow edged with 
black. Such is Moreau’s description of the colouring 
of the Tunny. 
Even in classic times the Tunny had won a high 
position in the economy of the Greeks and Romans. 
It was chiefly at each end of the Mediterranean, off 
the Pillars of Hercules (Gibraltar) and in the Hel- 
lespont (Constantinople), that large fish of this species 
were then found. The Phoenicians are said to have 
introduced the Tunny-fishery into Spain on each side 
of Gibraltar; and the Golden Horn of Constantinople 
is said to have received its name on account of the 
abundance of Tunnies which were caught there. It 
was known that yearly, in spring, it entered the Black 
Sea in order there to propagate its species — Strabo 
gives the Maeotic swamp (the Sea of Azov) as the 
locality. The small Tunnies, when they left the Black 
Sea in their first autumn, were known as Kordylos 
and Auxis , when they returned, they were called Pc- 
iamis. The largest were called Orcynus; and according 
to AtiienvEUS, it was thought that they came into the 
Mediterranean from the Atlantic, but never went further 
than Italy. Melandrys was a name originally used for 
the sliced flesh of the Tunny, and Cybium for the cu- 
bical bits of flesh cut from young Tunnies. 
Duhamel^ and Cetti '' have given minute descrip- 
tions of the Tunny-fishery of later times. At the 
present time it is not believed that even the majority 
of the Mediterranean Tunnies are annual visitors from 
the Atlantic, though their immigration and emigration 
a According to Cuvier’s description of Thynnus vulgaris , 1. c., p. 66. In Thynnus brachypterus, according to his description, the 
connective tissue in wanting. The difference is perhaps no more than that which often occurs in fishes, e. g. the Salmon and Gwyniad, be- 
fore and after the spawning season, and is due to the greater or less accumulation of fat round the pyloric appendages. 
b 1. c., p. 415. 
c Cf. Lilljeborg, 1. c., p. 252. 
d Traits d. Pech.es , part II, sect. VII, chap. II. 
e Naturg. v. Sardinien , 3:ter Th. pp. 141 etc. 
