156 SCOMBET^IDK. 



with a ready sale in winter. Tlie usual liabit of tliis fisli is 

 to keep near the ground ; but when they assemble in pursuit 

 of sandlaunce or other favourite food, as they sometimes do 

 in innumerable multitudes, they become so eager as to thrust 

 each other in heaps on the land 



" On Tuesday evening, August, upwards of ten thousand 

 Scads were taken by a foot-sean near Marazion. These fish 

 frequently come so near the shore as to enable persons to 

 take them by hand. On Wednesday evening another shoal 

 appeared, when a number of men, women, and children went 

 into the water to catch them, while others stood on the sand 

 to see them throw the fish on shore ; and by this means a 

 vast quantity were obtained. The young keep near the 

 shore after the larger fish have retired to deep water." 



Montagu found this species common on the Devonshire 

 coast, and well known to the fishermen by the names before 

 given. In one week, at the latter end of August, he obtain- 

 ed several, varying in length from three to fifteen inches ; 

 but the most common size was about nine inches. In West- 

 bay and at Weymouth this fish is common. I saw about 

 a score in the London market at the end of May 1834, and 

 purchased two. They possessed a portion of the flavour of 

 Mackerel, but were not so fine. These were about twelve 

 inches long, and would have spawned about the same time 

 as the ]\Iackerel. They have been taken off Yarmouth, in 

 Berwick bay, in the Frith of Forth ; and Dr. Fleming found 

 part of one in the estuary of the Tay. Professors Reinhardt 

 and Nilsson have ascertained their existence, also, as far north 

 as the coast of Denmark and the west coast of Norway. 



Montagu''s description of a fresh specimen fifteen inches 

 long is as follows: — "The depth behind the gills three 

 inches ; the mouth large ; the upper li]) capable of consider- 

 able projection ; the teeth minute, not discernible without a 



