334 VERTEBRATES : FISHES. 



SCOMBRIM:, OR MACKEREL FAMILY. This Family 

 comprises fishes with a smooth body and small scales, and 

 whose tail and caudal fin are extremely powerful. Over 

 fifty genera and more than four hundred species are known, 

 many of which are of the highest utility to man. 



The Genus Scomber Mackerels proper is charac- 

 terized by a fusiform body, two dorsals widely separated, 

 finlets behind the dorsal and anal fins, and two cutaneous 

 crests on the sides of the tail. 



The Mackerel, S. vernalis, Mitch., of the Atlantic, 

 is from sixteen to eighteen inches long, dark steel-blue 

 above, becoming lighter on the sides, and with twenty-four 

 Fig . 202 . to thirty vertical deep- 



blue half bands ; be- 

 neath silvery, with me- 

 tallic reflections. This 

 species appears on the 



Mackerel, S. vernalis, Mitch. CQast Q f NW England 



in the spring and summer, sometimes in the most aston- 

 ishing numbers. Dr. Storer states that in 1837 Mas- 

 sachusetts fishermen caught over two hundred thousand 

 barrels of this Mackerel. 



The Spanish Mackerel, 5. Dekayi, Storer, of the At- 

 lantic, is from twelve to twenty-four inches long, light- 

 green above, with numerous undulating darker green 

 lines ; lower, dull bluish, with grayish-brown spots on the 

 sides ; and the abdomen light, with metallic reflections. 



The Genus Thynnus has a corselet around the thorax, 

 formed of larger scales than those of the rest of the body, 

 a long and elevated crest on each side of the tail, and the 

 front dorsal reaching nearly to the hind one. 



The American Tunny, or Horse-Mackerel, T. secundo- 

 dorsalis, Storer, is from nine to twelve feet long, and at- 

 tains a weight of a thousand pounds. 



The Genus Pelamys has separate, stout, and acute 



