114 



CLASS-? I S C E S. 



ORDER AC AN T H OP T E R YG I A. 



curious circumstance with regard to this genus is, that some are unprovided, 

 whilst the greater number are furnished, with an air-bladder. 



The Mackerel (S. Scomber) is from one to two feet, of which the head 

 measures rather more than a fifth ; lips rather fleshy ; the cheek is covered 

 with some peculiar long-pointed scales directed backwards, which seem to 

 form plaits rather than scales ; the body covered with very small scales, 

 as it were blended in with the skin ; lateral line, passing along the upper 

 part of the body, straight from the head to the tail ; the colour of the back 

 is blue-steel, iridescent with green, gold, and purple, relieved with nearly 

 straight or undulating black lines ; sides and belly silvery, with purple and 

 gold glossings ; anal, and often the ventral, fins flesh-coloured ; the false 

 anal fins silvery, and all the other fins grey. Towards the latter end of 

 May, and during the months of June, July, and even in the early part of 

 August, Mackerel are caught full of roe, but they begin to spawn in June, 

 and, according to Bloch, 540,000 eggs have been counted in the roe of a 

 single female. Mackerel, according to Mr. Yarrell, feed probably on the fry 

 of other fish, and at Hastings follow towards the shore a small kind of 

 Clupea, commonly known there as Mackerel Mint, and which he suspects 

 to be the young of the Sprat. Mackerel are included amongst the fish 

 which are called migratory, and said to pass from the North Seas downwards 

 towards the south ; but it is more probable, however, that the migration 

 of the Mackerel, instead of being from north to south, is merely from deep 

 water, to which they had retired during winter, to the coast; and this 

 appears more likely to be the case, as they are taken nearly at the same 

 time in the Mediterranean, in the British Channel, and in the North Sea. 

 They have been met with as far south as the Canaries, but there is no 

 notice of their being found nearer the tropics. The largest are said to be 

 taken at the entrance of the British Channel, between Sorlingues and the 

 He de Bas, but their flavour is not so good as those of less size. Different 

 localities appear to have some effect on the edible qualities of this fish ; 

 those of the Channel are considered the best ; at Amsterdam it is esteemed 

 of little value ; and the Icelanders set so little store on it that they will not 

 take the trouble to fish for it. In England and France, however, Mackerel 

 are highly prized, and their great number render them an important article 

 of food to the poor of both countries. 



XIPHIAS Sword-fish. This remarkable genus was well known to the 

 ancients, and mentioned by Pliny and Ovid. It consists of but a single 

 species, for X. Imperatar, of Bloch, is stated by Cuvier to be merely a copy 

 of a bad figure of the known species so described by Aldrovandi. 



The Sword-fish (X. Gladius) varies from 

 ten to fifteen feet in length ; profile inclining 

 gently towards the root of the sword, which 

 thence stretches horizontally forwards, some- 

 what trigonal and tapering to a sharp point, 

 its upper surface finely striated, the under smooth, with a slight central 

 groove, the edges delicately toothed : under jaw sharp ; sides of the head 

 vertical ; body covered with rough skin, slightly compressed in front, 

 rounded behind, and increasing in depth with, age ; upper parts bluish-black, 

 under silvery-white. In young Sword-fish, of twelve or eighteen inches 

 long, the body is covered with little tubercles in longitudinal rows ; these 

 first subside on the back and afterwards on the belly, so that when the 

 animal has acquired its full age they have entirely disappeared. It is very 

 common in the Mediterranean. It is found occasionally on the Spanish and 

 French coasts, and sometimes on our own ; it even enters our rivers, 

 of which an instance is mentioned by Daniels, in his " Rural Sports," of 

 one which, in the Severn, near Worcester, struck and killed a man who 

 was bathing, the certainty of which was proved by the fish being captured 

 almost immediately after. They attack with their long sword other fish, 

 on which they are said to prey ; but according to Bloch, they feed also on 

 vegetable substances. It is no uncommon thing to find the broken beak of 

 the Sword-fish sticking in a ship's bottom, which it may perhaps have 

 mistaken for a Whale. In the Mediterranean they are fished for as articles 

 of food from May to August. A man stationed on a rock gives notice of 

 the approach of the fish, upon which the fishermen row towards and 



The Sword-fish. 



endeavour to strike it with a small harpoon attached to a line, with which 

 it makes away, and often requires many hours' pursuit before it can be got 

 into the boat. 



ZEUS Daree. This genus is divided into two sections, or, not impro- 

 perly, genera, viz., 1. Doree (Zeus) ; 2. Boar-fish (Capros). 



The Doree (Z. Faber), figured on Plate 3, is from twelve to eighteen 

 inches in length, and its greatest depth half as much ; head large, mouth 

 so extensile that, when projected, the hinder angle of the gill-flap is mid- 

 way between its tip and the root of the rays of the tail-fin ; the general 

 colour of the fish is olive-brown tinged with yellow, assuming, in different 

 lights, blue, gold, and white hues, but generally has a golden tinge, 

 whence, perhaps, the origin of its name, from the French Doree; upon 

 each side of the body a large, circular, black spot, with a surrounding white 

 ring ; the fin membrane, between the spines, dark-brown, but lighter 

 between the flexible rays. It is very common in the Mediterranean and in 

 the Bay of Biscay, also along the Cornwall and Devonshire coast, and on 

 that of Hampshire and Sussex. It has been taken both at Yarmouth and 

 off the shores of Cumberland. In Ireland it is caught off Londonderry and 

 Antrim, and along the Waterford coast. According to Couch, quoted by 

 Yarrell, the Doree is rather a wandering than a migratory fish, its motions 

 being chiefly regulated by the smaller fish on which it preys. 



Other genera of this family : 



ATROPUS The Brama Atropus, of Schneider. 



CORYPH-ENA Dolphin. Four subgenera ; in general voracious. 



GASTEROSTEUS Stickleback. Two species found in our streams. 



LAMPRIS Sing-fish. Found in the Chinese seas. 



MONOCEROS Sea Unicorn. From two to three feet long. 



RHYNCOBDELLA. Three feet long ; found in the Indian seas. 



SCYRUS. From ten to fifteen inches in length; found off the Coromandel 

 coast, also at Java and the Red Sea. 



SERIOLA. An extensive genus ; they all live in deep water. 



STROMATEUS. A large genus ; only one European species. 



THTTNNUS Tunny. These fishes are found in both the Atlantic and 

 Pacific Oceans, and also hi the Mediterranean and Indian Seas, but it is 

 disputed whether they are migratory, or, 

 living in the depths of seas, merely approach 

 the shores at breeding-time. Their flesh is 

 much esteemed, and along the southern coasts & 

 of Europe and the islands of the Mediter- Tun ". v - 



ranean afford extensive employment for fishers. Some of them were well 

 known to the ancients, and as highly valued as at present. 



TETRAPTURUS Faw-finned. Varies in length from four to nine feet ; 

 found in Sicily and off Sumatra. 



THYRSITES, TRACHINOTUS, and VOMER. 



TRICHIURUS Hair-tail. This genus has great resemblance to tin 

 Lepidopi, from which, however, they are distinguished by the al 

 of the scales representing the ventral fins, by the spines in place of anal 

 fins, and by the entire want of a caudal fin, the tail itself tapering off to 

 form a very delicate hair-like filament, whence its generic title. 



The Silvery Hair-tail (T. Lepturus) is from two to three feet in length, 

 and about one-sixteenth of this in depth, which it retains to the middle of 

 the body, whence it begins to diminish, and the last fifth of the entire 1< 

 resembles a narrow and compressed lash ; the forehead and upper part < >l 

 the muzzle are flat, and the sides of the head vertical ; the eyes are pla< :e<l 

 rather behind the middle of the head, and the gape reaches back opposite 

 their anterior margin. The general colour is very brilliant silvery ; the fins 

 yellowish-grey, and the edge of the dorsal dotted with blackish. This 

 species is generally distributed throughout the Atlantic. 



STYLEPHORUS. The single species known of this genus, S. Chordatus, 

 is from ten to eleVen inches in length exclusive of the caudal process, which 

 is twenty-two inches more ; the body is about two inches in depth and one 

 in width; the colour is silvery; fins and caudal process brown. It has 

 been once caught in the Gulf of Mexico, between Cuba and Martinique, near 



