PLATE CXVI. 
Skipper. Pad. Syn. Pise. p. 169. 
The Saury. Penn. Tour Scot. 1169.— Brit. Zool. 3. p. 325. 
Linn. Trans. V. 3 . p. 60 — Turt. Gmel. Linn. 
V. I . p. 862. — Shaw. Gen. Zool. V. p. 1. 114. 
Our countryman Ray appears to be the first writer who describes 
this rare and curious species of Esox as a native of Britain ; he 
speaks of it as a Cornish fish under its provincial name of Skipper. 
Rondeletius and Gesner previously mention it as a scarce kind among 
the fishes of the Mediterranean. In 1769 the same fish was again 
introduced to notice by Mr. Pennant in his Tour of Scotland, and 
afterwards in his British Zoology, wherein we are informed, that 
vast numbers of them were thrown ashore on the sands of 
Leith, near Edinburgh, after a great storm, in November 1768. In 
the summer of the year 1800 a single specimen was taken near 
the Isle of Portland, in Dorsetshire, after a hard storm, an account 
of which, accompanied with a figure of the fish in its natural size, is 
given by the Rev. Mr. Rackett, F. L. S. in the third volume of the 
Linntean Transactions *' ; and since that period the specimen in out- 
possession occurred likewise on the British coasts. It is altogether sin- 
gular that this fish has no place in either of the editions of the Linntean 
* This fish appears to be rare on the Dorset coast. Mr. Rackett tells us, that of the 
fishermen in this part, one only was acquainted with it, and called it a Skipper, the 
name under which, according to Ray, it was known in his time on the coast of Corn- 
wall. This writer adds, that the species has not been noticed by Linmeus, Ginelin, 
nor Blech; and that Pennant has given a very indifferent figure of it in his Tour in 
Scotland, and bas made use of the same plate in his British Zoology, Vide Linn. 
Trans. V. 3. p. 60. 
