THE FISHES OF THE IRISH SEA. *j 



off Liverpool, in the Barrow Channel, the Dee estuary, and the Menai Straits, and it is 

 abundant along" the outlying banks. 



TRACHINUS DRACO, Linn. Greater Weever. 



(Day's British Fishes, vol. I., p. 79, PI. XXX.) 

 (Fish. Mus. , Zool. Dep. , Univ. Coll., Liverpool.) 



This species is certainly much rarer than the last with us. Eyton says 

 "occasionally found on the Welsh Coast"; Byerley records it somewhat doubtfully. 

 We trawled two specimens from the "John Fell," off the Welsh Coast, in May, 1901, 

 and Professor White tells us he finds it in the Menai Straits in July, August and 

 September. We have taken it outside the Aberdovey Bar. It ranges from Scandinavia 

 along Western Europe to the Mediterranean, and has also been recorded from Madeira, 

 New Guinea, West Coast of Africa, Cape of Good Hope and Peru. It is distributed 

 all around the British Coast, but especially in the south and west. 



Family SCOMBRID^E. 

 SCOMBER SCOMBRUS, Linn. Mackerel. 

 (Day's British Fishes, vol. I., p. 83, PI. XXXII and XXXIII.) 



(Fish. Mus., Zool. Dep., Univ. Coll., Liverpool.) 



This is a gregarious, wandering, pelagic fish which approaches the British coast 

 from the deep water of the North Atlantic in early summer. It spawns in May and June. 

 Small mackerel generally appear in Cardigan Bay and at the Isle of Man in June, 

 and work round the coast to Anglesey, and then along the north coast of Wales, so as 

 to reach the Liverpool district in July and August, and if the water remains smooth, 

 with winds hanging off the land, the shoals may remain for some time, and large numbers 

 be caught both with lines and stake nets. As soon as a westerly wind sets in and any 

 sea rises, they leave our waters. Only very occasionally are any individuals found here 

 of large size like those found off Kinsale, in the south of Ireland. 



They are caught at Formby and other places along the Lancashire coast by stake nets, 

 and in the deeper water by lines. At Holyhead anchored nets are used. They are taken 

 also in Barrow Channel and the Menai Straits. They are more certain to visit the Isle of 

 Man with regularity each season than to reach the Lancashire waters, and they are very 

 abundant in summer outside, and occasionally inside Port Erin Bay. 



SCOMBER COLIAS, Gmel. Spanish Mackerel. 

 (Day's British Fishes, vol. I., p. 91, PI. XXXIV.) 



This is a Mediterranean fish (also found off Japan) ; but stragglers occasionally appear 

 in our seas (Brighton, Swansea, west coast of Ireland, &c.). It is doubtful whether they 

 ever get further up the Irish Sea than the south of Wales. 



ORCYNUS THYNNUS (Linn.) Tunny. 

 (Day's British Fishes, vol. I., p. 93, PI. XXXV.) 



This, the short-finned Tunny, is a southern and Mediterranean fish, which just reaches 

 our southern coasts, but stragglers occasionally go further north, and have been taken in the 



