SCOMBEROID.E. 



621 



red spots and lines of golden-yellow upon a rich 

 green ground ; and the under parts are silvery with 

 a fine rosy tint. In the season vast numbers of them 

 approach the shores. 



THVNNUS Tunny. This, plough sometimes caught 

 on the shores of Britain, is a rare fish with us ; but it 

 is very plentiful in the Mediterranean, and has been 

 known and celebrated from the remotest period of 

 antiquity at which we have any mention of fish by 

 particular names. It has many qualities to recom- 

 mend it, being- very handsome, very large in si/e, and 

 in much estimation as food. The characters are : the 

 body resembling that of the mackarel, but thicker 

 across in proportion to the length ; the fore part of 

 the body having a sort of mantle composed of nume- 

 rous scales ; the first dorsal extending nearly to the 

 second, and becoming much lower toward the pos- 

 terior part ; the anal fin in rear of the second dorsal, 

 and both of them divided into numerous finlets 

 toward the tail ; and the sides of the tail with a dis- 

 tinct keel. 



The tunny is altogether a much thicker and stouter 

 fish than the mackarel. Pennant saw one, which had 

 followed the herrings into Loch Fyne, killed at Inve- 

 rary, the weight of which was four hundred and sixty 

 pounds ; and specimens larger than this have been 

 mentioned. The length of the one in question was 

 seven feet ten inches, which were very large dimen- 

 sions for a fish of the active and discursive habits of 

 the tunny. But. the tunny is, properly speaking, an 

 inhabitant of warmer seas than those of Britain, and 

 of course makes its appearance there only as a stray, 

 diverted from its proper track by the prey of which 

 it is in chase and not in quest of spawning ground, 

 as is the case with the mackarel. 



During the greater part of the year the tunnies are 

 discursive through the ocean, but in the summer they 

 resort to the shores in vast shoals ; and all along the 

 north-coast of the Mediterranean, and in the island of 

 Sicily, the tunny fishery is carried onjwith much acti- 

 vity, and the flesh of the tunny, both in the recent 

 state and salted, forms a considerable part of the food 

 of many of the people, and no small part of the wealth 

 of those who reside on the coasts. The months of 

 May and June are the great, ones for this fishery, and 

 they are looked forward to with much expectation. 



There are two modes of fishing, the one by tempo- 

 rary nets shot from the fishing-boats, and the other 

 by fixed ones. Confederacy is necessary for the 

 working of both, as the fishes are very timid when 

 they approach the land. They range along the shore 

 at no very great distance, so that the place and direc- 

 tion of the shoal can be seen by sentinels placed on 

 the heights. The boats then advance uniting their 

 nets, and forcing the fish into the shallow water, from 

 which they are taken by means of a large tunnel net. 

 The large ones are, however, always killed in the net ; 

 b;it the small ones are carried on shore. The fixed 

 nets are placed parallel to the shore, at such a dis- 

 tance as that the fish shall come between. There are 

 cross nets, which have small openings, the passing of 

 which gradually brings the fish into close array, until 

 they are in the last enclosure of the net, which is 

 emphatically called the " chamber of death." In this 

 they are secured ; and it has a net at the bottom, the 

 raising of which brings the whole shoal to the sur- 

 face, where they are despatched, by beating them on 

 the head with poles. When taken in such quantities, 

 the greater part are cut in pieces and salted, or part 



are often pickled much in the same way as we pickle 

 salmon. 



When raw the flesh of the tunny has a colour nearly 

 as red as that of beef; but it becomes paler when 

 boiled. The flavour is much famed, but the consist- 

 ency is much harder than accords with our notions of 

 fish of the first quality, being more so than even that 

 of the sturgeon, though the tunny is the better fla- 

 voured fish of the two. It is dressed in a great variety 

 of ways. 



The spawn is deposited about the same time of the 

 year as that of the mackarel. It is speedily hatched, 

 and by about October the fry, which are then nearly 

 two pounds in weight, quit the shore for the deep 

 water. The tunny has a family likeness to the 

 mackarel, but it is shorter and thicker in pro- 

 portion ; the head is rather short, the gape not very 

 wide, and the teeth small and in a single row, but ex- 

 ceedingly sharp. The inside of the mouth and the 

 tongue are very dark-coloured, the first dorsal fin 

 folds down into a'sort of groove on the back, and there 

 is a spine in advance of the second one. The upper 

 part is dark blue, with the scales on the mantle lighter ; 

 the under part is greyish white, with silvery spots, 

 which are produced up the sides; and the sides of 

 the head are white. The first dorsal, the pectoral, 

 and the ventral fins are black ; the caudal fin is dusky, 

 the second dorsal and the anal are flesh-coloured, 

 with silvery reflections, and the finlets are yellowish 

 with black tips. The caudal fin has always fewer rays 

 than that of the mackarel, and the number varies in 

 different individuals. There is another tunny, still 

 more southerly in its habitat than the tunny of the 

 Mediterranean, which may be noticed, which is 



The Bonito, or Striped Tunny (T. pelamys}. This 

 is, like its congener, a very roaming fish ; and though 

 it does not appear regularly in the British seas, or 

 resort to the British shores to spawn, yet occasionally 

 occurs as a stray, following and feeding upon the 

 smaller fish. The shape is nearly the same as that 

 of the tunny, but the size is smaller, the length rarely 

 being more than two feet and a halfl The colour of 

 the upper part of this species is steel blue ; the sides 

 dusky ; and the under part whitish, with three dusky 

 snipes from the pectoral fin to the posterior part of 

 the fish, parallel to each other and to the outline of 

 the under part,and terminating backwards at the lateral 

 fine. The dorsal fins and the anal one are concave 

 in their margins, and the finlets are enlarged at the 

 tops, so as almost to reach each other at the extre- 

 mities, though their bases are at some distance apart. 

 The lobes of the caudal fin are very long, and placed 

 so nearly at right angles to the axis of the body, that 

 the tail is but slightly concave in its posterior mar- 

 gin. The flesh, as is r the case in all the fishes which 

 are powerful swimmers near the surface in the wide 

 seas, is very red and full of blood. 



The bonito occurs in the Mediterranean ; and there 

 are, indeed, two species which get the name, the chief 

 difference between which seems to be, that the teeth 

 in the other one are much larger, and the sides are 

 marked with dusky bars across. It is in the ocean 

 that these fishes, and some of the other large mem- 

 bers of the mackarel family reside. The flying fishes 

 are the grand object of their pursuit ; but they catch 

 very indiscriminately at any thing that moves in the 

 water ; and thus they are often captured by the sail- 

 ors, to whom they afford a very welcome and ac- 

 ceptable mess, though their flesh is dry, and not of 



