98 
BONTTO. 
utmost efforts. It is observed that in its spring from the 
water a blow is sometimes attempted with the tail, in the 
endeavour to bi’ing down the flying prey; and that finding 
itself too heavy for flight, it drops to the water on its side. 
The Bonito has been known to wander so far north as the 
coast of Scotland; and Dr. Scouler records an example that 
was taken in the Frith of Clyde, in the month of July. 
Steward, in his Elements of Natural History, reports another 
which was caught in the Forth; and I owe the knowledge of 
the capture of still another in the north to the kindness of 
T. C. Heysham, of Carlisle: it was taken at Whitehaven, in 
Cumberland. It has also been taken in Ireland. 
The example selected for description was twenty^-nine inches in 
length, which is little less than the size to which it usually grows; 
and it measured twenty inches round close behind the pectoral 
fins; head conical, ending in a point at the snout; under jaw 
projecting, the gape not wide; teeth few and small; tongue 
flat and thin; nostrils obscure, not in a depression; eye elevated, 
round, two inches and a half fi'om the snout. The body round 
to the vent, from thence tapering to the tail, near which it is 
depressed. Scales scarcely visible. Lateral line at first de- 
scending and waved, becoming straight opposite the anal fin, 
from thence ascending and terminating in an elevated ridge, 
with another ridge above and beloAV near the tail. Behind the 
pectoral fins the corset is formed of a bright triangular section 
of the surface, from which begin four dark lines, which extend 
along each side of the belly to the tail, and which form a 
characteristic mark of this fish. From the snout to the pectoral 
fin eight inches and three quarters; the fin itself lower on the 
side than in the Tunny; lodged in a depression, pointed, and 
barely reaching to the border of the corset. The first dorsal 
fin beginning four inches in height, but low in its progress; 
lodged in a chink; and the separation between it and the 
second dorsal proportionally rather wider than in the Tunny. 
The second dorsal and anal hook-shaped, and nearly opposite 
each other. Eight finlets above and below. The tail deeply 
divided, the lower half rather more extended than the upper; 
ventral fins in a depression. Colour a fine steel blue, darker 
on the back, sides dusky, white below, from the eyes to near 
the anal fin, with the exception of the lines before mentioned. 
