TEMNODON SALTATOR. 65 



Habits. These fishes have many of the habits of the common Mackerel ; they 

 collect in great multitudes, and often swim near the surface of the water, and thus 

 cause a thousand rijjples ; and at times they leap a foot or more into the air, 

 whence the common name Skipjack ; they are ravenous, and seize the hook 

 greedily, when baited with small living fish, or if it be kept in motion, or dragged 

 behind a boat under easy sail. Their flesh is not much esteemed at the South, 

 where they are generally small ; but at the North they reach a much larger size, 

 and are there highly prized. 



Geographical Description. The Skipjack has the widest geographical distri- 

 bution ; it is found on the Atlantic coast of America, from Massachusetts Bay, 

 according to Storer, to Brazil, where it was observed by the Prince de Wied; 

 Webb and Berthollet saw it at the Canary Islands ; and Cuvier asserts that it 

 not only inhabits the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, but is also found 

 along the shores of Madagascar, Amboyna, and New Holland. \ 



General Remarks. Catesby, in his Natural History of Carolina, &c., gave the 

 first account of this fish, and accompanied it with a figure ; the description is 

 short and imperfect, and the figure is very defective, as it represents the animal 

 wanting the anterior dorsal fin, which is, in fact, so small, thin, and delicate, and 

 so completely received in a groove when the fin is closed, that it might easily be 

 overlooked by a careless observer. 



Linnaeus's description is next in order, and is very good, as it was drawn from 

 recent specimens sent him by Dr. Garden. 



Lacepede described it at first as the Pomatome skib, from drawings done in 

 Carolina, by Bosc ; and again, according to Cuvier and Valenciennes, as the Chei- 

 lodijitcre heptacanth, from a drawing of Commerson, made at Madagascar ; though 

 Lacepede says his fish is an inhabitant of the '■^ grand ocean equatorial." 



9 



* 



