COMPARATIVE STUDY OF SCOMBROID FISHES. 
427 
Lateral line runs parallel to the dorsal outline of the body, nearly to the 
twelfth spine of the first dorsal. Below the spine the line is bent downward. 
Behind the vertical from the first dorsal finlet, a few undulations in the line. 
Scales of the lateral line are also concealed under the skin, and on both 
sides of the pored scales we find two or three rows of minute scales. The 
lateral keel of the caudal portion is also covered with minute, elongated 
scales. The third spine of the first dorsal is longest and thickest, though 
Büppel reports that in his specimens the second spine is the longest. Air- 
bladder large and thick-walled, though Büppel denies its presence. Pyloric 
coeca form a conspicuous mass in the abdominal cavity as in other forms of 
the Cybiidae, so that it is strange that they escaped the eyes of Büppel, but 
the fact that the mass of the coeca is enormously developed deceived the 
naturalist, probably the mass was taken as a part of the liver or other organs, 
as Klunzinger (49) remarked in his work. 
Skeleton firm and strong. The number of vertebrae is very small, compared 
to that of the species of Gybium . Skull flat and broad. Anterior half of the 
frontals is provided with many oblique ridges, and covered directly with the 
skin. Posterior margin of the preopercle is a little undulating. Dorsal 
anterior margin of the opercle is slightly concave. Inner limb of the 
subopercle is large. First vertebra is very thin and its neural process is free 
from the centrum. Anterior precaudal vertebrae want the parapophyses, and 
the lateral keel of the caudal peluncle is narrower than the diameter of the 
centrum. The last haemal process is coalesced to the fan-shaped hypural 
bone. Cross-section of vertebrae is not exactly cruciate in most of them, but 
more or less sex-radiate. Haemal arch is formed from the eleventh vertebra, 
and haemal spines of some length are found in precaudal vertebrae. Inter¬ 
muscular bones are very numerous, being found to the 29th vertebra. 
Colour is said to be dark bluish to violaceous at the back, and greyish 
white at the belly. Top of the head and the anterior end of the lower jaw 
are greyish. Fins are black or greyish, leaving the tip of the second dorsal 
and anal colourless. 
It is told that the fish attains the big size of about 240 cm with a weight 
of 80 kg ; but fishes now commonly caught at the Ogasawara Islands are 100- 
150 cm in length, and 20-30 kg in weight. 
