The Zoologist — August, 1873. 3637 



size to admit the fish's head up to the neck. These nets are laid 

 down overnight, and when drawn up towards the morning are found, 

 if circumstances have been favourable, to have intercepted vast 

 shoals, each individual fish being retained by its gills. Life neces- 

 sarily becoming extinct, from the position in which the fish are held 

 before they are drawn out of the water, this mode of their capture 

 becomes useless for aquarium purposes. As the summer and calmer 

 weather advances, the mackerel come into shallower water, per- 

 mitting the use of the finer-meshed seine-net from the shore ; and 

 it is only when taken by these means, or on hooks, that there is 

 any chance of conveying them in a living condition to the tanks. 

 Even then only half the difficulty is overcome, the fish being so 

 impatient of confinement that they usually endeavour to effect their 

 escape by dashing heedlessly against the rockwork or front glass of 

 their tank. The majority speedily kill themselves in these attempts, 

 and the remainder usually injure themselves to such an extent as to 

 outlive their comrades but a few days. One specimen captured 

 last autumn survived the most remarkable injuries far into the 

 present year, taking its food and exhibiting an amount of activity 

 equal to that of its uninjured companion. In this instance the fish 

 had dashed its head with such violence against the rockwork that 

 the anterior facial bones were forced in upon one another, rendering 

 the usual pointed contour of the snout perfectly obtuse, and bending 

 it at the same time in a strong curve towards the left shoulder. 

 During the past fortnight the mackerel have again approached the 

 coast, and several dozen living examples have been conveyed to 

 the Brighton tanks. From the causes already given, but few of 

 these are now on view, though some six or seven are doing well, 

 and seem disposed to lake kindly to the altered conditions in which 

 they are placed. The survivor from last autumn now proves of 

 remarkable service, acting like the tame elephants or "komkies" 

 in repressing the wild fury of the new captives. The mackerel 

 recently caught have been allotted to several tanks, but in none 

 have they done so well as in that containing the acclimatised 

 individual. However wild they may be when first introduced, 

 amicable relations seem to be at once established between this 

 specimen and the new comers ; the latter now quietly settling 

 down, and tamely following it in its graceful evolutions round the 

 confined boundaries of their new abode. — Reprinted from the 

 'Field' of July 19, 1873. 



SECOND SERIES — VOL. VIU. 2 Q 



