188 ACANTHOPTERYGII. MACKEREL FAMILY. 



by a fusiform body, covered with scales, which are 

 small and smooth ; sides of the tail not keel-shaped, 

 but merely raised into two small cutaneous crests ; 

 the two dorsal fins are widely separated, and there 

 are finlets behind the second dorsal and the anal. 



(Sp. 43.) S. Scomber. The Common Mackerel. 

 (PI. XI.) The natural history of this valuable fish, as 

 illustrated by Mr. Yarrell, exhibits so pleasing a spe- 

 cimen of his valuable work already so often referred 

 to, that we shall enrich our pages by an abridgment, 

 scanty as it must necessarily be. The Mackerel is 

 so well known for the beauty and brilliancy of its 

 colours, the elegance of its form, its intrinsic value 

 to man as an article of food, both in reference to 

 quantity and quality, that further observation on 

 these points is unnecessary. It is probable that 

 these fish inhabit almost the whole of the European 

 seas; and the law of nature which obliges them, 

 a,nd many others, to visit the shallower water of the 

 shores at a particular time, appears to be one of 

 those wise and beautiful provisions of the Creator, 

 by which not only is the species perpetuated with 

 the greatest certainty, but a large portion of the 

 parent animals are thus brought within the reach 

 of man, who but for the action of this law, would 

 be deprived of many of those species most valuable 

 to him as food. For the Mackerel, dispersed over 

 the immense surface of the deep, no effective fishery 

 could be carried on ; but approaching the shore as 

 they do from all directions, and roving along the 

 coasts collected in immense shoals, millions are 



