TUNNIES AND THEIR RELATIONS 



At the rear it acts as a scull, beating the water first to 

 right and then to left, and so pushing the body forward. 

 Only some sharks and the large mackerel or scombers 

 are capable of using this tool with an effect comparable 

 to that attained by the cetaceans. 



In the first rank among these mackerel are the fish 

 commonly known as Tunny. They are very plentiful 

 and they have considerable points of difference. They 

 belong to several species grouped in a few genera, 

 which, in their turn, are included with the mackerels 

 in the family Scombridae. They live in the warm and 

 temperate seas of the world, and are to be found in 

 considerable shoals. As voracious as wolves, always 

 hunting down fish smaller than themselves, their num- 

 bers and size enable them to play a preponderating 

 part in the natural disposition and the balance of food 

 in the marine world. European waters contain several 

 of them. In the first place comes the great tunny, 

 the giant of the group, which may be as much as 

 three yards long and weigh up to eight hundred or 

 a thousand pounds, as much as a horse or an ox. 

 Not so large is the albacore, distinguished by the 

 excessive length of its two pectoral fins. Further 

 down the scale, a sort of miniature, come the four- 

 spotted little tunny, and various species of bonito, 

 whose length may be as much as three feet, but is 

 seldom more. 



Whatever their species, all these mackerel live exactly 

 the same sort of life. They exploit the seas just as 

 flesh-eating mammals on land exploit the plains and 

 forests. Their size and speed give them a position of 

 dominance which they use and abuse to the full. Not 

 only does their rapid speed enable them to overpower 

 many kinds of prey to an extent only limited by their 

 gluttony, but they are able, further, to keep up this 

 rate of speed over long distances, which other fish are 

 usually not able to do. Though they are not so 

 speedy as the dolphins, their enemies, which hunt 



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