22 SCOMBRIM. 



the sides, descending below the lateral line. They run 

 obliquely, the longest one extending from between the 

 first and second free dorsal finlets to the apex of the 

 corselet; the others lie parallel to it and at equal dis- 

 tances, and consequently, owing to the curve of the back, 

 decrease in length the further they are situated from the 

 one above mentioned. In the dried specimen the cheek 

 is impressed by brownish grooves or wrinkles, intercept- 

 ing elliptical areas, and similar depressions exist on the 

 integument covering the coracoids. On the head gene- 

 rally, and especially on the jaws and gill-covers, the skin 

 is very smooth, even, and nacry, without scales. The 

 branchiostegous membrane and the isthmus of the gills 

 are bluish-black. The first dorsal also appears to have 

 been blackish, Including the caudal, the specimen mea- 

 sures twenty-one and three-quarter inches in length. 



In the Zoologist for 1859 (p. 6731) mention is made 

 of the capture, in a herring-net set off the coast of Banff, 

 of an example of the Plain Bonito (Auxis vulgaris of 

 the second edition) a fish which has hitherto been but 

 seldom recognised on our coasts. 



In the warmer districts of the Atlantic, Bonitos, Pela- 

 mids, and other large Scomberoids, are fished for with 

 tackle rigged like a Mackerel line, but considerably 

 stronger. The bait is a piece of bright tin, shaped like 

 a Flying-fish, or a slice of the skin of pork, or of the tail 

 of a Mackerel. The hook is weighted so as to sink a 

 little beneath the surface of the water, and produces 

 most sport when it is dragged at the rate of five miles 

 an hour, or thereabouts. 



