Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 1 (1877).djvu/53

Rh parts of the coast, is by no means plentiful. It derives its English name of "Thresher" from its supposed habit of attacking and striking the Grampus with its long fox-like tail.—Ed.]

—In September last a specimen of the Bonito (Scomber pelamys) was caught in a trammel-net in the Cattewater, Plymouth. I examined the fish, and found its length to be one foot eight inches and a half; pectoral-fin, six inches—much longer in proportion to the length of the specimen than shown by Mr. Couch in his figure of this species. Another about the same size, but with the pectoral-fins still longer, was taken some years previously near Plymouth. Yet they did not equal those of a closely-allied species, the Germon or Long-finned Tunny (Scomber alatunga), which I at first thought it might be.—.

[The Bonito of the tropics, so well known to navigators, is rarely seen in British waters, although, according to the late Mr. Couch, a few specimens have been taken from time to time on the Cornish coast. The colour of the fish is a fine steel-blue, darker on the back, the sides dusky, and whitish below; behind the pectoral-fin is a bright triangular section of the surface, from which four dark longitudinal lines extend backwards to the tail. The specimen above noticed is not a very large one, the species sometimes attaining a length of two feet six inches.—]

—Early on the morning of the 24th of November, 1876, a large Tunny (Thynnus vulgaris), exhausted, but not quite dead, came ashore at Bacton, on the Norfolk coast, where I saw it on the following day, and took the following measurements:—Total length from the point of the upper jaw to the centre of the tail, 7 feet 4 inches: length of first dorsal-fin, in inches, 10·8; of second dorsal, 15·5; of pectoral, 15·8; of ventral, 10·3; of abdominal, 14·2: breadth of tail from point to point, 33·4. The finlets, which were ten in number on the back and nine on the abdomen, were rather less than an inch in depth; the lateral prominences above the tail were about two inches wide; the ridge on the side of the body, in a line with the upper ray of the pectoral fin, projected about a quarter of an inch, and was 18·7 inches long; from the gape to the point of the upper jaw measured 8 inches, and the eye was 2·1 inches in diameter, with a silvery green iris and a very dark blue pupil. The teeth were very small, and the upper jaw projected slightly beyond the lower, which is the reverse of what is stated by Yarrell and Couch. Both the upper and lower jaws were pink, this colour reaching backwards for about two inches from the extremity of the jaws. The general colour of the upper parts of the fish was nearly black, of the sides silvery gray, and of the lower parts, and also of the gill-coverts, silvery white. The first dorsal fin was purplish black, the second dorsal pale pink, shaded in places with dark purplish, the pectoral fin resembled the first dorsal, except that it had