OSSEOUS FISHES. 599 



preserved with oil and salt after being cooked ; this preparation is in 

 great request at Cette, Montpellier, and Marseilles. With a pot of 

 marine tunny, preserved in the vinegar of Lunel, a household is 

 pretty well prepared for any event. 



The Mackerel (Scomber scombrus) is too well known to require 

 minute description. Who has not admired these fishes, with their steel- 

 blue back, and changing iridescent sides of gold and purple and green, 

 relieved by fine waving lines of deeper black, as they appear on the 

 market-stalls, or as they are emptied in the early morning from the 

 fishing-boat? The head is blue above, with black markings, the 

 rest of the body being heightened with iridescent shades of gold and 

 purple. 



There are two species of mackerel that of the Atlantic and of the 

 Channel, which has no swimming-bladder, Scomber scombrus (Fig. 391), 



Fig. 391. The Mackerel (Scomber scombrus). 



and the mackerel of the Mediterranean, Scomber colias, which has the 

 swimming-bladder, and which is a very rare fish in our seas. 



The mackerel is common to all European seas : being the Veirat of 

 the Bay of Languedoc ; the Aurion of Provence ; the Bretal in some 

 parts of Brittany ; the Hacarello of the modern Komans ; the Scombro 

 of the Venetians ; the Lacesto of the Neapolitans ; the Cavallo of the 

 Spaniards; the well-known Mackerel of our own shores, and the 

 Makril of the Swedes ; it is found on the coast of North America, 

 and as far south as the Canary Islands. It is a wandering, unsettled 

 fish, supposed to be migratory, but individuals are always found on 

 our coast. They are supposed to remain during the winter in the 



