SPANISH MACKEREL. 149 



pointed : head large and long ; eye large ; from the snout to 

 the pectoral fin three and a half inches. Rays of the gill- 

 membrane six, concealed. Lateral line at first slightly de- 

 scending, then straight. Scales on the superior plate of the 

 gill-covers, as well as on the body. First dorsal fin in a 

 depression ; seven rays, the first shorter than the second or 

 third, which are of equal lengths : spurious fins six above and 

 below, the anterior not high : tail divided, and at its origin 

 doubly carinated : vent prominent. Colour dark blue on the 

 back ; striped like a Mackerel, but more obscurely, and with 

 fewer stripes : a row of large dark spots from the pectoral fin 

 to the tail : sides and belly thickly covered with smaller 

 dusky spots : the tail, gill-covers, sides, and behind the eye, 

 bright yellow. 



" From the Mackerel, which it resembles, this fish differs 

 in the markings of the head, longer snout, larger eye and 

 gape, longer head, and in having scales on the anterior 

 gill-covers. The body is not nearly so much attenuated pos- 

 teriorly ; the ventral fins are sharp and slender, those of the 

 Mackerel wider and more blunt : in the former the pectorals 

 lie close to the body, in the latter they stand off; in the 

 latter, also, is a large angular plate, the point directed back- 

 ward, close above each pectoral fin, which does not exist in 

 the Spanish Mackerel. 



" It seems to be the Colias Ronddetii of Ray (Sj/n. Pise. 

 p. 59). I have given it the name by which it is known to 

 our fishermen." 



" This fish is scarce, but some are taken every year. It 

 does not often take a bait, although the fishermen inform me 

 that this sometimes happens, and that its infrequency is 

 owing to the difference of feeding rather than to want of 

 rapacity. It is more frequently taken in drift-nets ; but even 

 then it is only one at a time, and at considerable intervals. 

 It is in no estimation as food. 



