134 FISHING IN AMERICAN WATERS. 



where it is known as the " albicore," and comes to Northern 

 waters for recuperation. Others suppose it to be the " tunny," 

 which follows ships for the crumbs from the table, and at- 

 tains, off" the coast of Spain and in the Mediterranean, the 

 weight of a thousand pounds. I do not believe the bonetta 

 to be similar to the tunny, but I know that it is called albi- 

 core by some Southern fishermen.. The fishes of our coast 

 and estuaries which I name as belonging to the troll are sup- 

 posed to be of this hemisphere, and are spine-rayed families 

 of the mackerel tribes. I am often surprised at the innocence 

 of intelligent anglers, who do not know a cero from a Spanish 

 mackerel, nor the latter from a bonetta, or a spearing from a 

 smelt, and can not distinguish the great Northern pike from 

 the maskinonge. 



SECTION TWELFTH. 



THE CERO, CERUS, OR SIERRA. 



It is rather a cereus matter to ascertain the names of such 

 fishes as ichthyologists have left out of their catalogues; and 

 as I make no pretensions of claiming this to be a school-book, 

 the angler will please scan the illustrations which I made per- 

 sonally from the fishes of which these are intended to be true 

 copies. 



THE CERO, CERDS, OR SIERRA. 



The cero is evidently a member of one of the mackerel 

 tribes, and in esculent quality ranks between the Spanish 

 mackerel and bonetta. It is a new visitant along the shores 

 from Virginia to Rhode Island, but it is quite numerous in 

 the West Indies. It evidently spawns in spring-time; is 

 white-meated ; ranges in weight from four to twelve pounds ; 

 is longer in proportion to its weight than any other of his 



