264 Percomorphi 



crescent-shaped oar, without flesh, almost without scales, com- 

 posed of bundles of rays flexible, yet almost as hard as ivory. 

 A single sweep of this powerful oar doubtless suffices to propel 

 the bonito a hundred yards, for the polished surfaces of its 

 body can offer little resistance to the water. I have seen a 

 common dolphin swimming round and round a steamship, 

 advancing at the rate of twelve knots an hour, the effort being 

 hardly perceptible. The wild duck is said to fly seventy miles 

 in an hour. Who can calculate the speed of the bonito? It 

 might be done by the aid of the electrical contrivances by which 

 is calculated the initial velocity of a projectile. The bonitoes 

 in our sounds to-day may have been passing Cape Colony or 

 the Land of Fire day before yesterday." 



Another bonito, Sarda chilensis, is common in California ; 

 in Chile, and in Japan. This species has fewer dorsal spines 

 than the bonito of the Atlantic, but the same size, coloration, 

 and flesh. Both are blue, with undulating black stripes along 

 the side of the back. 



The genus Scomberomorus includes mackerels slenderer in 

 form, with larger teeth, no corselet, and the flesh comparatively 

 pale and free from oil. 



Scomberomorus maculatus, the Spanish mackerel of the West 

 Indies, is one of the noblest of food-fishes. Its biography 



FIG. 208. The Spanish Mackerel, Scomberomorus maculatus (Mitchill). New York. 



was written by Mitchill almost a century ago in these 

 words : 



"A fine and beautiful fish; comes in July." 



Goode thus writes of it: 



"The Spanish mackerel is surely one of the most graceful 



