Migratio7i of the MacJcerel. 637 



of these classes, he collects, he has informed us, " nests, eggs, 

 and skins of every kind :" and it is a pleasant duty to remark, 

 that the state of the specimens sent to us fully testifies his 

 skill ; the Colour and plumage being well preserved, and the 

 skin entire,, soft, and flexible. Mr. Mathews, at the date of 

 his communication, stated, that any orders sent to him, mio-ht 

 be directed for him, to the care of John MacLean, Esq., 

 Lima ; " as my letters will be taken care of, whatever part of 

 Peru I should happen to be in." We received the skin of 

 the Caprimulgus through Mr. Hunneman, 9. Queen Street, 

 Soho, who, we believe, is in professional communication with 

 Mr. Mathews. 



Art. IV. Reasons in support of an Opinion advanced, that the 

 Mackerel is not a Migratory Species of Fish, By O. 



The frequent appearance of the mackerel (*Sc6mber ^Scom- 

 ber L.) in the shops, at periods of the year when it is not 

 expected, has long induced me to doubt the fact of its being, as 

 Pennant calls it, " a summer fish of passage.'' By reference 

 to my journal, I find this fish has been common in the shops 

 of the London fishmongers, the last winter, during the months 

 of December (1833), January (1834), and February (1834). 

 Now, if the species be migratory, as is generally supposed, 

 these individuals could not, surely, have come from distant 

 seas to our coasts at an unlooked-for period of the year, 

 because the season may have been mild, to go back again on 

 the return of severe weather ; for then, it is to be observed, 

 they again disappear. The conjecture I have to offer is, that 

 the mackerel do not, as is the conceived opinion, migrate 

 into distant seas when the spawning season is over ; but that 

 ihey then retire into the vast depths of the ocean, near their 

 spawning quarters, beyond the reach of the lines and nets of 

 the fishermen. I have, for many years, observed, during the 

 winter season, after mild or turbulent weather, that mackerel 

 are invariably to be seen in the shops ; and the reason for 

 this appears to me to be, that the instinct implanted in them 

 to visit the shallower water for the important business of 

 spawning, is either matured by an unusually mild and un- 

 seasonable state of the weather, or that the violence of the 

 winds has driven them from their deep retreats in the ocean ; 

 showing, in either case, that their migrations are not into 

 remote seas. Reasoning from analogy, in natural history, is 

 said [V. 499.] not always to be a safe guide ; but the habits 

 of the char (5almo alpinus L.) bear no small analogy to the 



