Page:Natural History, Fishes.djvu/130

116 recent Conspectus, four hundred and nineteen species are assigned to the Family, as we shall consider it, including the Sword-fishes and the Dorados, of which that zoologist constitutes separate Families. The whole of this vast assemblage are marine, (with the exception of one or two obscure species inhabiting the Asiatic rivers), and many of them properly pelagic, roving the ocean far from land. They are found in all seas.

We shall enumerate the characters of the subordinate groups, or sub-families, into which this great host is distributed, and notice a few particulars of the most interesting species. These groups are six in number.

1. Scombrina. The body is rather lengthened than oval, smooth, clothed with minute scales; two dorsal fins are present, the second as well as the anal cut, for the greater part of its length, into small equidistant finlets, reaching to the caudal; the caudal is very high and deeply forked; the jaws are nearly equal in length, not furnished with fleshy lips. Between one sixth and one seventh of the total number of species in the Family are contained in this section, which are scattered over the whole ocean. Besides our beautiful and valuable Mackerel, of which we shall presently speak, we find placed here the Genus Thynnus, (.) including the swift, vigorous, warm-blooded Bonitos of the tropics, the pursuers of the little Flying-fishes, and the noble Tunny of the Mediterranean. Specimens of all these are occasionally taken on the British shores.

The flesh of the Tunny (Thynnus vulgaris, .) is firm, wholesome, and highly esteemed; and as the fish attains the length of from fifteen