A Letter to the Rev. M. Lort, B. D. F. R. S. Containing an Account of a Singular Fish, from the South Seas, by the Rev. Mr. Michael Tyson

XXX. A Letter to the Rev. M. Lort, B. D. F. R. S. containing an Account of a singular Fish, from the South Seas, by the Rev. Mr. Michael Tyson. Reverend Sir, Read May 9, 1771. The Rev. Mr. Farmer, Fellow of Emanuel college, Cambridge, very obligingly lent me a curious fish, preserved in spirits, which was brought by his relation Commodore Byron, from the new-discovered islands in the South Sea. As I have the greatest reason to believe that it has never been figured or described by any author, and indeed never before seen in Europe; I have taken the liberty to send you the following description and drawing of it (TAB.VII. fig. viii.). I could not count the branchiostegous rays, without greatly injuring the specimen; but there is no doubt of its being one of the Perca genus of Linnæus. It is called by the Commodore the Zebra fish, he not knowing its proper name. The drawing is exactly measured from the real fish, and is in every part of the same size. Piscis thoracicus. Perca * * * * * * CAPUT obtusum, anticè nudum. Os ascendentis, labiis carnosis marginatum, mandibula inferiore longiore. Dentes in maxillâ utrâque æquales, acerosi, approximati. Sutura maxillarum utrinque obliqua, dentata. Opercula branchiarum spinis ferrato-ciliata. Nares unicæ, rotundæ, marginatæ. Corpus ovatum, compressum, squamosum. Pinnæ basi squamosæ, margine nigrae, ramentis ultra radios porrectis. Dorsales 2 subunitæ: prima, rotundata, radiis 10 spinosis, secunda angulata, radiis 16 mollibus. Pectorales rotundatae radiis 14. Ventrales radiis 6. Analis angulata radiis 14, anticis 2 spinosis. Caudalis rotundata 18. Color griseus. Fasciæ 6 nigrae transversæ totum piscem cingunt: prima per caput ducitur, pone oculos; secunda per operculorum marginem; tertia angulata, obliqua, inter pinnam primam dorsi atque anum; quarta recta ab unione pinnarum dorsali ad spatium pone anum; quinta arcuata inter pinnam dorsalem secundam et pinnam analem; sexta rectiuscula in basi pinnæ caudalis. Diagnosis. Diagnosis. Perca (* * * *) Pinnis dorsalibus subunitis, caudâ rotundatâ, corpore ovato: fasciis 6 transversis nigris. I am, Reverend Sir, Your most obedient humble servant, Bennet Coll. Camb. March 11, 1771. Michael Tyson.