The Frigate Mackerel 



depressed, with a rather large keel on each side; first dorsal short, 

 some distance from second; second dorsal and anal small, each 

 with 7 or 8 finlets; no air-bladder; gillrakers numerous, very long 

 and slender. 



The only species of this genus is the frigate mackerel (A. 

 tha^ard). This fish occurs in all warm seas. On our Atlantic 



Coast it is seen occasionally as far north as Cape Cod. ft ap- 

 pears to be very erratic in its movements, and rarely reaches the 

 United States coasts. It swims in large schools and sometimes 

 appears in immense numbers. In the Adriatic it is called "Tim- 

 berello." 



It resembles in some respects the common mackerel; in other 

 characters it resembles the bonito, the genus Auxis being inter- 

 mediate between Scomber and the related genera Pelamys and 

 Orcvnus. It is not much valued as food. 



Colour, blue, variegated with darker above, becoming paler 

 with age; belly silvery. 



GENUS GYMNOSARDA GILL 

 The Little Tunnies 



This genus differs from that of the great tunnies in the ab- 

 sence of teeth on the vomer, the complete absence of scales 

 outside the corselet, and in the peculiar development, in the 

 form of a network or trellis, of a portion of the abdominal part 

 of the backbone. 



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