THE FOOD AND GAME FISHES OF NEW YORK. 



569 



\vard from the back, some of them ahnost reaching tlie belly; iris yellowish; first 

 dorsal fin sometimes pale, sometimes nearly black; pectoral dark above, light 

 beneath. 



The Benito inhabits the Atlantic Ocean on both coasts and is common in the 

 Mediterranean. On our coast it ranges habitually north to Cape Ann. It reaches 

 the length of 30 inches and the weight of 10 or 12 pounds. Though not generally 

 esteemed as a food fish, it meets with a steady sale either fresh or salted like the 

 Mackerel. The fish is believed to live in the open sea, coming to the shores only to 

 feed or to deposit its eggs. It is predaceous and active, feeding insatiably on 

 Mackerel and Menhaden ; it takes trolling bait as freely as the Bluefish, to which it 

 is not inferior in quality of flesh. 



The fish is generally scarce in Gravesend Bay. Five were taken in one day in a 

 pound net in October, 1897, an unusual number for that species. The Bonito will 

 not live in captivity. 



BONITO. 



86. Spanish Mackerel (Scoinbcrouwriis mactilatus Mitchill). 



Cybium maculatiim DeKay, N. Y. Fauna, Fishes, 108, pi. 73, fig. 232, 1842, N. Y. 



Scotnberotuonis iiiactilatiis Jordan & Gilbert, Bull. 16, U. S. Nat. Mus., 426, 1883 , 

 Bean, Bull. U. S. F. C, VII, 13S ; 19th Rept. N. Y. Comm. Fish., 254, pi. VII, 

 fig. 9, 1890 ; Jordan & Evermann, Bull. 47, U. .S. Nat. Mus., I, 874, 1896, \A. 

 CXXXIV, fig. 368, 1900. 



Color silvery ; upper parts bluish ; sides with numerous oblong spots of a dull 

 orange, none of them more than one-third as long as the snout, these spots fully as 

 numerous above the lateral line as below it ; the membrane connecting the first 

 eight spines of the dorsal black, the rest of the fin white; soft dorsal with a yellow- 

 ish tinge, its margin dark ; anal and ventral white ; pectoral black inside, yellowish 

 with dark borders outside and covered with dusky points; caudal dusky except at 

 base. 



The Spanish Mackerel inhabits the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of North America, 

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