SCOMBERID.E. 



to the pectoral fin three and a half inches. Rays of the 

 gill-membrane six, concealed. Lateral line at first slightly 

 descending, then straight. Scales on the superior plate of 

 the gill-covers, as well as on the body. First dorsal fin in 

 a depression ; seven rays, the first shorter than the second 

 or third, which are of equal lengths : spurious fins six above 

 and below, the anterior not high : tail divided,- and at its 

 origin doubly carinated : vent prominent. Colour dark blue 

 on the back ; striped like a Mackerel, but more obscurely, 

 and with fewer stripes : a row of large dark spots from the 

 pectoral fin to the tail ; sides and belly thickly covered 

 with smaller dusky spots : the tail, gill-covers, sides, and 

 behind the eye, bright yellow. 



" From the Mackerel, which it resembles, this fish differs 

 in the markings of the head, longer snout, larger eye and 

 gape, longer head, and in having scales on the anterior gill- 

 covers. The body is not nearly so much attenuated pos- 

 teriorly ; the ventral fins are sharp and slender, those of the 

 Mackerel wider and more blunt : in the former the pectorals 

 lie close to the body, in the latter they stand off ; in the 

 latter, also, is a large angular plate, the point directed back- 

 ward, close above each pectoral fin, which does not exist in 

 the Spanish Mackerel. 



" It seems to be the Colias Rondeletii of Ray (Syn. Pise. 

 p. 59). I have given it the name by which it is known to 

 our fishermen. 11 



" This fish is scarce, but some are taken every year. It 

 does not often take a bait, although the fishermen inform me 

 that this sometimes happens, and that its infrequency is 

 owing to the difference of feeding rather than to want of 

 rapacity. It is more frequently taken in drift-nets ; but even 

 then it is only one at a time, and at considerable intervals. 

 It is in no estimation as food." 



