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Show I>JSCES. ToxoTEs, Cuv. The body short and compressed; the dorsal placed on the last half of the body, with very stout spines, the soft part, as well as that of the anal which corresponds to it, scaly; the snout depressed, short; lower jaw projecting beyond the upper one; the small crowded teeth very short in both jaws, the extremity of the vomer, palatines, ptery· go ids, and on the tongue; six rays in the branchice, inferior edge of the infra-orbital and preoperculum, finely serrate. Their stomach is wide and shot·t, with twelve crecal appendages to the pylorus; natatory bladder, large and thin. The species known, Toxotesjaculator, Cuv.; Labrusjaculator, Shaw, vol. IV, part II, p. 485, pl. 68,( 1) is celebrated for the same faculty that distinguishes the Chret. rostratus. By spurt· iug drops of water on insects which frequent aquatic plants, they are beaten down and brought within its reach. It can force the water to a height of three or four feet, and rarely misses its aim. FAMILY VII. SCOMBEROIDES. Our seventh family is composed of a multitude of fishes with small scales, a smooth body, numerous creca frequently united in clusters, and whose tail and caudal fin in particular are ex· tremely powerful. This fam_ily is of. the greatest utility to man, by the size and :fla~our o~ Its species, and their inexhaustible reproduction which brmgs them periodically into the same latitudes where they constitute the object of the most extensive fisheri;s, ScoMBER, Lin. The first dorsal entire, while, on the contrarv the last rays of the second, as well as those of the anal which co;r~~pond to them, are t .<1) It is also the Scarus Scltlosseri, Gm., Lacep. and Shaw, the Sciama jacufq,. n nxhof Bonnaterre, the Labre aagittaire of Lacep ., and the Coi"us chatarem of uc anan. ACANTHOPTERYGII. 145 detached, forming what are termed false or spurious fins, or pinnre spurite. The genus is subdivided as follows: ScoMBER, Cuv. The Mackerels have a fusiform body covered with uniformly small and smooth scales; two little cutaneous crests on the sides ·of the tail; an empty space between the first and second dorsal. Sc. scombrua, L., Bl. 54. (The Common Mackerel.) Blue back, varied with black undulating streaks; five false fins above and beneath. The value, &c. of this fish is too well known to need a comment. The Common Mackerel has no natatory bladder; but, and it is a singular fact, that organ is found in several other species, SG similar to it, that some attention is necessary to distinguish them; such are the little Mediterranean Mackerel, Sc. colias; Sc. pneumatophorus, Laroche, Ann. Mus., XIII; and the Sc. grex,. Mitch., Ann. New York Lye., I, 423, which is sometimes seen on the coast of the United States, in countless numbers, &c. ( l) THYNNus, Cuv. A soft corslet round the thorax, formed by scales larger and smoother than those on the rest of the body; a cartilaginous carina betweetl the two little crests on the sides of the tail; the first dorsal extends close to the second. Sc. thyrmua, L. (The Tunny.) This fish has been taken in the Mediterranean, from a very ancient date, and by its abundance constitutes a great source of wealth to Provence, Sardinia, Sicily, &c. It is said to attain the length of fifteen and eighteen feet, and has nine spurious fins above, and as many beneath; the pectorals are one-fifth of its whole length. Several neighbouring species inhabit the Mediterranean, that have hitherto been but badly distinguished. Sc. brachypterua, Cuv.; the .!J.licorti, Randel., 245, and Duham., Sect. VII, pl. vii, f. 5. Pectorals but one-eighth of the whole length. Sc. thunina, Cuv.; La Tonine;' Aldrov., 315; Descrip. de l'Eg. Poiss. pl. xxiv, f. 5. A brilliant blue marked with black lines, undulated and curved in various ways, &c. It is also in this first group that we must place the (l) Add, Scomber vernalis, Mitch., loc. cit.;-Sc. canagurta, Cuv., Russ, 136. VoL. II.-T \ |
