  A fairly general procedure is studied to perturbate a multivariate density
satisfying a weak form of multivariate symmetry, and to generate a whole set of
non-symmetric densities. The approach is general enough to encompass a number
of recent proposals in the literature, variously related to the skew normal
distribution. The special case of skew elliptical densities is examined in
detail, establishing connections with existing similar work. The final part of
the paper specializes further to a form of multivariate skew $t$ density.
Likelihood inference for this distribution is examined, and it is illustrated
with numerical examples.
