THE COMMON MACKEREL. 



429 



trees and bushes. The angler may toen observe them striving which 

 shall first seize his bait, till the whole shoal are caught. 



Ill one of the pools of Merionethshire there is a singular variety of 

 the Perch, the back of which is hunched, and the lower part of the 

 back-bone next the tail is strangely distorted. The common kind are 

 as numerous in this pool as the deformed fish. Some of the crooked 

 Perch Ijave likewise been found in the small alpine lakes of Sweden 



OF THE MACKEREL TRIBE. 



Nearly all the species of Mackerel are gregarious, and unite in 



immense shoals. Some of them are 



migratory, making long voyages at 



certain seasons of the year. It ia 



believed that they are all eatable: and 



MACKEREL some of them are well known to be 



exceedingly delicate food. They afford 



employment and support to numerous fishermen in various eountrios. 



There are in the whole about twenty-five species. 



THE COMMON MACKEREL. 

 From the elegance of its shape, and the brilliancy of its colors the 



COMMON MACKERE1. 



Mackerel, when alive, is one of the most beautiful fish that frequents 

 our coasts. Death, in some measure, impairs the colors, but it by uo 

 means obliterates them. 



Mackerel visit our shores in vast shoals ; but, from being very tender 

 and unfit for long carriage, they are found less useful than other 

 gregarious fish. In some places they are caught by lines from boats; 

 for during a fresh gale of wind they readily seize a bait. Tlie usual 

 bait is a bit of red cloth or a piece of the tail of a Mackerel. It ia 

 necessary that the boat should be in motion, in order to drag the bait 

 along near the surface of the water. The great fishery for Mackerel is 

 in some parts of the west coast of England. This is of such an extent 

 as to employ, in the whole, a capital of nearly two hundred thousand 



