244: 



THE MACKEREL. 



the cuttle-fish, the calamary being its favorite prey. So voracious is this creature that it is 

 readily caught by making a sham calamary out of lead and leather, dressing it with projecting 

 hooks, and flinging it into the sea. The fishermen throw this bait to some distance, and then 

 draw it rapidly through the water, when the Atun takes it for tlie real calamary darting along 

 after its usual fashion, dashes at it and is immediately hooked. In default of this bait, a strip 

 of red cloth stuck on a hook is often a sufficient lure for this voracious fish. 



The Mackerels, family Scomibridce, include seventeen genera and about seventy species 

 of highly brilliant and metallic-tinted fiishes, found in the high seas. Many of them are cos- 

 mopolitan, and all have a wide range. 



The Common Mackerel {Scomber scombrus), the well-known food-fish, is abundant along 

 the whole coast of North America, occasionally straying to the Pacific ocean. 



The notable Spanish Mackerel is a common article in our New York market. It is 

 not frequently seen above that. 



The Bonito is another ally, of considerable repute as a food -fish, — occasional on our 

 coast. 



SUiVERY HAIR-TAIL— rric/ijwjvM leptm-m. 



The Tunnies of this family are wonderful for their size. The CosrMON Tunny, or Horse 

 Mackerel, is a notable creature, reaching the length of ten feet, and weighing a half ton. It 

 makes its appearance in the summer months, sometimes being taken in the seines. Though 

 large in the anterior half, its terminal portion has all the beauty of the shape of the Mackerel. 

 The small of the body and the sharply-defined crescent tail render it a graceful fish. It is one 

 of the well-known ancient fishes, being abundant in the Mediterranean Sea from the earliest 

 time. A single specimen has yielded twenty gallons of oil. So much like the Mackerel is its 

 flesh, it is captured for the market, and its flesh sold as third-rate mackerel. 



The Little Tunny, or Albicore, is an active, graceful fish, running in schools of a 

 hundred or more. We have seen them leaping out of water, and gambolling around Egg 

 Rock, at Nahant, Massachusetts. 



The Mackerel is well known for the exceeding beauty of its colors and the peculiar flavor 

 of its flesh. This is one of the species that are forced by the irresistible impulse of instinct to 

 migrate in vast shoals at certain times of the year, directing their course towards the shores, 

 and as a general rule frequenting the same or neighboring localities from year to year. The 

 time of their advent is rather variable, and in consequence the price of this fish varies with the 

 scarcity or abundance. 



