COMP/Ul.\TIVE STUDY OF SCOMBROID FISHES. 455 



Islands. These immatiivo fishes are very slender, have faint longitudinal colour 

 bands on the sides and the sooty belly. Tlieso fishes are most probably year- 

 lings, hatched late in spring of the piXHjediug year. 



Bonitos are sensitive fislu«, Ijeiug fi-ighteuod «away when thi; wat..'r 

 is stained with blood, when a fellow fish is struggling furiously in a 

 net, or when a iellow fish makes a narrow escape from a net or a 

 hook. Therefore shark-fiühing witli a long line in the fishing ground 

 of the bonito is considered in several districts to be harmful to bonito- 

 fishing, as the death-combat of sharks is generally accompanied with 

 blood-shed, which scares the bonito away. Long lines for the bonito are also 

 believed to be injurious fi"om a similar cause. Drift net fishing for bonitos 

 and tunnies is also hated by the bouito-fishermon, as well as the circle-net 

 fishing for these fishes. Bonitos are very active and powerful, but they are 

 not tenacious of life aud can not withstand unfavourable conditions long. 

 Thus when caught in a drift net or a drift long line they very soon snecuiiib. 

 In this point bonitos seem to differ very much from tunnies. 



Bonitos are very good swimmers, their velocity being roughly estimated 

 to be more than 25 miles an hour. They migrate in shoals in search of food, 

 and do not stDp at any particular spot for a long time, though they often remain 

 for a while round shallow banks in a warm clear water, as sevcrid kinds of 

 small fishes are always found in such places. 



Bonito-fishing is carried on at the Psujific coast of our empire, in Hokkaido 

 in the north, as an important industry. On the west coast of Kyushyu and in 

 the waters roimd the KyukjTi Islands and Taiwan this fishery also thrives. 

 Bonitos are chiefly caught with rods and lines, alluring a shoal of fish with live 

 baits thrown from the boat, as the net-fishing is not suitable, owing to the 

 clearness of the water. Long lines are sometimes used. The snood is 3-4 m 

 in length and the disbiuce between two consecutive snoods is about 8 m. 

 These lines are slender and not very strong. 



Bones of this fish are found in the remains of shell-mounds in the north- 

 eastern part of Hondo. In the " Yengishiki," a classical work on coroinonics 

 in the imperial eowrt, etc., compiled in 927, many kinds of food prepared from 

 the bonito are emmierated, and these articles were given as tribute to the go- 

 vernment and the imperial court. In an article in " Tsurezuregusii," a well- 



