96 



VERTEBRATA. PISCES. 



elegant pencilling of its changing hues, or the fla- 

 vour, solidity, and wholesomeness of its flesh. As 

 a genus, its character consists in the second dorsal, 

 as well as the anal fin, being cut, as it were, into 

 several smaller fins detached from one another. In 

 common with many other subjects of our most im- 

 portant fisheries, the Mackarel (S. Scomber) was 

 formerly believed to perform long migrations, from 

 shore to shore, in immense shoals of countless mil- 



THE MACKAREL (Scomber Scomber). 



lions ; but their periodical appearance on our coast 

 is now pretty well ascertained to be, not their arrival 

 from distant seas, but merely their removal from the 

 deep water of the offing, a few miles distant at most, 



