296 



AMERICAN ANGLER'S BOOK. 



SPANISH MACKEREL. BAY MACKEREL. 



Cybium maculahim : Cutier. 



No adequate idea of this graceful and brilliant fish can be 

 conveyed by description or engraving, to one who has not 

 seen it. 



Its body is an elongated ellipse, somewhat compressed ; its 

 section oval ; head small and long ; mouth large ; each jaw 

 armed with long pointed, but compressed, teeth, inclining 

 forwards. There are very small teeth on the vomer, palatine, 

 and pharyngeal bones, as well as on the tongue. Color : 

 greenish-blue on the back, shading away into a grayish 

 pearly hue, but slightly roseate along and below the medial 

 line ; belly white, like molten silver or mother-of-pearl. It 

 has a series of rows of dark but shining spots extending 

 along the back and sides, from the pectorals almost to the 

 caudal. The first dorsal fin has eighteen short weak spines ; 

 the second has one spine and fifteen rays ; pectorals, nineteen 

 rays ; ventrals, one spine and five rays ; anal, two spines — not 

 sharp — and fifteen rays ; caudal, twenty or twenty-two rays. 

 The tail has a carinated projection on each side, extending 

 along the peduncle to the anterior curve of its caudal, which 

 is deeply lunate, or crescent-shaped. 



