2 REPORT ON THE PRESENT STATE OF KNOWLEDGE 



selves according to the sizes of the fish. The shoal does not seem to 

 have any definite leader, the fish following any individual which makes 

 a dart in a particular direction. Bateson found that at night the fish 

 lay on the surface of the water, with their heads pointing in different 

 directions, and that they did not move about in shoals. Similar obser- 

 vations on the mackerel have never been made. Fulton suggests that 

 the iridescent colouring on the sides of many fishes may assist them in 

 keeping together in shoals.* 



Distribution. — The mackerel {Scomler scomber) occurs on the Atlantic 

 coast of Europe, from Bergen in Norway, southward to the Straits of 

 Gibraltar.! It is found also in the Mediterranean, being taken in large 

 numbers along the Spanish coast, the south coast of France, the coasts 

 of Corsica, and in the Adriatic. Mackerel are also mentioned as being 

 captured on the coasts of Tunis and of Morocco, but no definite 

 statement has been found as to whether the species is Scomber scomber 

 or Scomber colias. 



In America Scomber scomber is found off the Atlantic coast, from 

 Cape Hatteras in the south, as far north as the coast of Labrador. 

 From Cape Hatteras northwards to the shores of Long Island it 

 is, however, only met with at some distance from land ; hence in 

 America it actually approaches the coast from Long Island to the 

 coast of Labrador. In many seasons mackerel are only found as 

 far north as Newfoundland, and there is little fishing of importance 

 even so far north as this. 



An allied species. Scomber colias, the Coly or Spanish mackerel of 

 Europe, chub or thimble-eyed mackerel of America, has a more 

 southern distribution, extending on the European coasts as far north 

 as the south coast of Ireland, where, however, it is not taken in 

 numbers, and southwards to Madeira. It is also plentiful at the 

 Cape of Good Hope, where numbers were captured in 1889 and 

 1890 by American mackerel vessels, which had proceeded there for 

 the purpose.^ In American waters the species is found from the 

 Gulf of Mexico to the coast of Maine, and also on the Pacific coast 

 of the United States. 



There is also a fish known in America as the "Spanish Mackerel" 

 {Scomheromorus maculatus), which extends on the east coast from Cape 

 Ann to Brazil. It is common in the Gulf of Mexico, but rare or 

 unknown about Cuba. § 



* Fishery Board for Scotland. lOtli Report, 1891, p. 342. 



t Occasional specimens may be taken further north and south than the limits here 

 indicated, but they are not present in sufficient numbers to give rise to a fishery. 

 t Report U.S. Fish. Com., 1889-91, p. 203. 

 § Jordan and Everman. " Check-list of Fishes." Eeport U.S. Fish. Com., 1895. 



