MACKERELS, HORSE-MACKERELS, ALLLED FORMS 137 



were netted in Bournemouth Bay throughout July and August. 

 They were called " pilchards," but they were most assuredly 

 scad, for the writer handled scores fresh from the seines, and 

 they! have since been as scarce in that bay as they had been 

 previous to that year. 



The eggs of the scad have been described only in the 

 unfertilised state. Holt having failed to fertilise them arti- 

 ficially. They are (unfertilised) transparent, and float in 

 water. Cunningham took, the young in a tow-net, from i to 

 2 in. long, in August and September, about five miles out 

 from Plymouth. At that length they displayed all the adult 

 characters, and may have been from two to four months old. 

 According to Couch these young scad are the prey of many 

 fishes. At a much earlier stage, on the other hand, Malm 

 found them sheltering in jelly-fish and feeding on their eggs. 

 The scad is supposed to utter a grunting sound, like that 

 observed in the gurnards, and the Italians consequently call 

 the fish by a name corresponding to our word " vocalist." 

 This must be either an occasional habit or more common with 

 scad taken in the Mediterranean, for the writer has handled 

 hundreds of scad newly caught in the Channel without once 

 hearing such sounds. 



The Boar-fish (^Capros aper), also known as the Cuckoo- 

 fish, is a small, flattened, orange-red species with a tubular 

 mouth, and having tubercles all over Its skin. Its teeth 

 are small. It rarely grov/s to more than 7 in., and its fins are 

 not in any way remarkable, though there is a long thick ray 

 in the pectorals, and the ventrals have but three spines. 

 Matthias Dunn found it spawning on the Cornish coast in 

 July, and Cunningham succeeded in fertilising the buoyant, 

 transparent e,gg, though he failed to hatch out the young. 

 This fish is plentiful only on our south-west coast during 

 the summer months, and is of no commercial importance. 



