322 NATURAL HISTOEY OF AQUATIC ANIMALS. 



is nothing to trouble the Horse-Mackerel until the killer comes, and then they know it, I tell you. 

 Then the Horse-Mackerel will run! Some fishermen say that they have seen a killer poke his head 

 out of the water with a Horse-Mackerel in his mouth. I have known a Horse-Mackerel to yield 

 twenty-three gallons of oil. The average size is about eight feet in length." 1 



101. THE LITTLE TUNNY OR ALBICORE. 



This fish, Orcynus alliteratus, known in the Gulf of Mexico, where it is confounded by the fisher- 

 men with other similar species, as the "Bonito,"and in the Mediterranean by the names "Tonnina' 

 (Trieste), "Carcane"( Venice), and "Tauna" (Nice), has a geographical range very similar to that of 

 the Bonito, except that it is found in the Pacific on the east coast of Japan, and in the Malay Archi- 

 pelago. It has also been recorded from Cuba, Brazil, and the Bermudas. This active species, which 

 attains the weight of from thirty to forty pounds, first made its appearance in our waters in 1871, 

 when several large schools were observed by the Fish Commission in Buzzard's Bay and the Vineyard 

 Sound. Nearly every year since, they have been seen in greater or less numbers, but, as they are 

 of little value for food, no effort has been made to capture them, nor are they often brought to the 

 markets. This species, known at the Bermudas as the " Mackerel," is frequently seen in the 

 markets at Hamilton and Saint Georges. 



In the Mediterranean its flesh is considered to be very excellent. My own experiments with 

 it are hardly confirmatory of this statement, but in Southern Europe all the fishes of this family 

 are very highly esteemed, and that it is not appreciated with us is perhaps due to the fact that 

 we do not know how to cook them. I find the following note by Professor Baird: "Flesh, when 

 cooked, dark brown all around the backbone, elsewhere quite dark, precisely like horse-mackerel. 

 Flesh very firm, compact, and sweet." 



Stearns records its frequent occurrence in the Gulf of Mexico, where he has observed indi- 

 vidual specimens at Pensacola and Key West. 



The habits of this fish have not been specially studied, but there is no reason to doubt that 

 they correspond closely with those of others of the same family. 



THE CARANGOID FISHES. 



The members of the family Carangidw, which is closely allied to the mackerel family, are dis- 

 tinguifced chiefly by the form of the mouth, and by the fact that they have uniformly but twenty- 

 four vertebrae, ten abdominal and fourteen caudal, while the mackerel have uniformly more, both 

 abdominal and caudal. They are carnivorous fishes, abounding everywhere in temperate and 

 tropical seas. On ourown eastern coast there are at least twenty-five species, all of them eatable, 

 but none of them of much importance except the Pompanoes. On the California coast there are 

 two or three species of this family, of small commercial importance. 



102. THE SILVER MOON-FISHES. 



THE BLUNT-NOSED SHINER SELENE SETIPINNIS. 



This fish, known on some parts of the coast as the " Horse-fish," in North Carolina as the 

 i< Moonfish" or " Sunfish," and in Cuba by the name " Jorobado," was called by DeKay "Blunt-nosed 

 Shiner," and since this name, sometimes varied to "Pug-nosed Shiner,'-' is in common use in the 

 New York market and in Narragansett Bay, while the other names are shared by other species, 



1 HORSE-MACKEREL. One weighing three hundred pounds was harpooned at Miuot's Ledge August 10, I*."i9, by 

 a seaman on the United States steamer "Granite." Another, nine feet in length and weighing six hundred and lour- 

 teen pounds, in Marblehead Bay about the same time. 



