194 The Scottish Naturalist. 



compete with it in this respect, and fall victims in great numbers 

 to its relentless activity. In the tropical and southern seas the 

 Bonito, when in pursuit of these fishes, is often seen darting 

 above the surface of the water just at the moment the latter 

 springs from it, to alight perhaps on the deck of some passing 

 vessel, where they are not in general unwelcome visitors. 



The Bonito has been seldom met with in the British or Irish 

 seas, and so far as I am aware it is recorded as having occurred 

 twice only in the Scottish seas. Stewart, in his Natural 

 History, published in 1817, states in a rather vague way, that 

 the Bonito is occasionally taken in the Firth of Forth, and Dr. 

 Scouler procured a specimen from the Clyde, in July, 1832. 

 In Ireland, it appears to have been taken some three times, and 

 in England, once or twice. 



The Scombridae, the family to which the Bonito belongs, may 

 be said, speaking somewhat broadly, to be essentially southern and 

 tropical species, many of them having a wide distribution. In 

 recent years some members of the family have been obtained pretty 

 far north. Professor Nilsson records in 1864 the occurrence of 

 an example of Thynnuthiuinina in the Scandinavian seas, and 

 Malmagren reports a specimen of the Pelamid (Pelamys sarda) 

 from the same coast in 187 1. This family, as arranged by Dr. 

 Giinther,* embraces some one hundred and thirteen species, 

 pertaining to twenty-nine genera. Of these, fifteen species have 

 been obtained from the British and Irish seas, and eight of the 

 above species are recorded from Scotland. In the classification 

 adopted by Yarrell in his British Fishes, a work better known, 

 perhaps, and more used in Britain than any other work on the 

 subject, there are seven genera, and twelve species. Of these, 

 six species have been met with in Scotland. According to 

 Giinther f, however, the Horse Mackerel (Caranx trachurus), 

 and the Derbio (Lichia glaucus) do not belong to this family, and 

 the Dotted Mackerel (Scomber punctaius) seems at best a doubt- 

 ful species. If these be eliminated the number of species of 

 the latter will be reduced to nine in Britain, &c, and five in 

 Scotland. If Pennant's % Tunny (Thymuis albacoro) was caught 

 at Inverary, a point on which he is not very explicit, then the 

 number of species observed in Scotland would still be six. 



With the exception of the common mackerel, all the Scom- 



* Catalogue Fishes Brit. Museum, Vol. 2. t Ibid. 



% Brit Zoology, Vol. 3, 1776. 



