BONITOES AND TUNNIES. 213 



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 Prof. 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 individual 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 Frigate Mackerel, Aiixis thazard, is a species which has lately made 

 its appearance in our waters, none having been observed before iSSo, 

 when they came in almost countless numbers. It is yet to be determined 

 whether it is to be a permanent accession to our fauna. The United 

 States Fish Commission obtained numerous specimens, twenty-eight bar- 

 rels having been taken in a mackerel seine ten miles east of Block Island 

 on August 3, 1S80, by the schooner "American Eagle," Capt. Joshua 

 Chase, of Provincetown, Mass. 



The Frigate Mackerel resembles, in some particulars, the common 

 Mackerel ; in others, the Bonito, the genus Aiixis being intermediate in 

 its character between the Scomber and the related genera Pelamys and 

 Orcynus. It has the two dorsal fins remote from each other as in Scomber, 

 and the general form of the body is slender, like that of the Mackerel. 

 The body is, hoAvever, somewhat stouter, and, instead of being covered 

 with small scales of uniform size, has a corselet of larger scales under and 

 behind the pectoral fins. Instead of the two small keels upon each side 

 of the tail, which are so noticeable in the Mackerel, it has the single, 

 more prominent keel of the Bonito and the Tunny. Its color is greyish- 

 blue, something like that of the pollock, the belly being lighter than the 

 back. Under the posterior part of the body, above the lateral line, are a 

 few cloudings or maculations resembling those of the Mackerel. The 

 occurrence of a large school of this beautiful species in our waters is very 

 noteworthy, for the fish now for the first time observed are very possibly 

 the precursors of numerous schools yet to follow. 



The Frigate Mackerel has been observed in the West Indies, and other 



