96 MACKERELS. 



21. The FAMILY OF SCOMBEROIDES is the most important of this 

 order ; it comprises many fishes of considerable size, the taste 

 of which is excellent, and the fecundity so inexhaustible, that, in 

 spite of the continued destruction to which they are subject, they 

 return yearly in immense legions to the same localities, and 

 offer themselves as a certain prey to the activity of fishermen, and 

 to the industry of those who make it a business to prepare and 

 preserve them. The Tunny, the Bonita, and Mackerel, which 

 are so useful to man, and form a type of this family, are easily 

 distinguished from other Acanthopterygians ; but many of the 

 species that are naturally grouped around them possess none of 

 the marks which. make them known, and establish such close 

 relations with other families, that the limits of the latter are diffi- 

 cult to define. In general, the Scomberoides have very small 

 scales, and a large part of the skin smooth ; they have neither 

 spines nor teeth on the pieces of the opercula ; their vertical fins 

 are not scaly; the tail, and the caudal fin especially, are ordinarily 

 large and very vigorous. Most of them have the sides of the 

 tail carinate or armed with scales in form of a shield ; and in 

 many, the posterior rays of the second dorsal, and anal fins, are 

 separated, and form so many falve fit *, or s tur<ous ft us. 



22. Those which possess these last characters, and have the 

 dorsal fin continuous, form the tribe of SCOMBER. Their body is 

 in the form of a spindle, the tail is short, and more or less carinate 

 laterally, but not armed with shields, and the caudal fin is very 

 large : they are excellent swimmers. This family includes the 

 Mackerel, the Tunny, the Sword-Fish, &c. 



23. The MACKERELS, Scombe , are distinguished from the 

 other Scomberoides by the uniformly small and smooth scales 

 with which the body is covered, by two small cutaneous crests 

 situate upon the sides of the tail, and by a vacant space that sepa- 

 rates the two dorsal fins. 



24 The Common Mtickrrd, Scomber scombnis, has a blue 

 back, marked with undulating black stripes, and five false tins. 

 It is a migratory fish, and at certain seasons abounds on the 

 coasts of the United States, and Europe. The importance of 

 the mackerel fishery may be estimated from the fact that in the 

 state of Massachusetts, no less than 308,462 barrels were packed 

 during tne year 1830. On the western coasts of England, this 

 fishery is conducted with nets at night by torch-light ; the fisher- 



21. What are the characters of the Scomberoides ? 

 '2'2. What are the characters of the tribe of Scomber? 



23. Wrmt are the characters of Mackerel? 



24. What are the characters of the common Mackerel? 



