104 MR. J. T. CUNNINGHAM ON MARINE FISHES [Jail. 18, 



boat. The first fishes I caught at the island were two Silver- fish 

 which were meshed in mackerel-nets with which I was experi- 

 menting on the eastern side of Jamestown. I opened one of 

 them and found it had a large simple air-bladder, long gill-rakers 

 on the first gill-bar but not on the others ; in the intestine I 

 recognized a Copepod. It was a male, the testes being large and 

 ripe, with milt running from them, so that this species, like several 

 others at St. Helena, spawns in February and March ; probably 

 small pelagic eggs with a single oil-globule, which I found in the 

 tow-net collections taken at the time the fishes were caught, 

 belonged to this species. It is caught at night, and its appearance 

 when first taken from the water is beautifully silvery. The 

 species has a wide distribution in the Atlantic, ranging from 

 the south coast of England to the Cape ; it is common in the 

 Mediterranean, and is found at Madeira, Cape Verde, Ascension, 

 Mogador, and the coast of Brazil. 



Scomber colias. 



Scomber colias Gmelin, Syst. Nat. 1788 (Sardinia) ; Cuv. & Val. 

 viii. p. 39, 1831 ; Storer, Fishes Massachusetts, 1839 ; Stein- 

 dachner & Doderlein, Beitrage zur Kenntniss der Fische Japans, 

 iii., 1885 ; Kitahara, Journ. Fish. Bur. Tokyo, 1897. 



Scomber pneumatophorus de la Boche, Ann. Mus. Hist. Nat. 

 xiii., 1809 ; Cuv. & Val. viii., 1831 ; Giinther, B. M. Cat. Fishes, 

 ii. 1860 (St. Helena, Madeira); Poey, Enum. Pise. Cubens. 1875 ; 

 Jordan &, Gilbert, Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. 1880 (Monterey Bay). 



Scomber macrophthalmus Rafinesque, IndicedTttiologia Siciliana, 

 1810. 



Scomber grex Mitchill, Trans. Lit. & Phil. Soc. N. Y. 1815. 



Scomber diego Ayers, Proc. Cal. Acad. Sci. 1856. 



It is generally agreed that the union of S. colias and pneumato- 

 phorus by Steindachner is correct, and the literature above 

 quoted shows that the species has a very extensive range, from 

 the Mediterranean to Japan through the southern parts of the 

 Atlantic and Pacific. It is mentioned under the name pneumato- 

 phorus in Gilchrist's South African list, and was stated, under 

 the name S. grex, by Cuvier to be very common at the Cape. 

 Cuvier also received specimens from St. Helena. It is recorded 

 by Steindachner from the coast of Chili ; but on the other hand 

 has not been observed in Indian or East Indian seas ; Day 

 (Fishes of India), and Bleeker (Verh. Batav. Genootsch. xxiv. 

 1852) make no mention of it. 



At St. Helena mackerel are taken only by hook and line and 

 the fishing is carried on only at night, that is after sunset. My 

 experiments showed that they do not bite in daylight and that it 

 is not possible to catch them in the English method by drift-nets. 

 Evidently these fishes are nocturnal and remain in deep water 

 during the daytime, rising to the surface at night. The fishing 

 is carried on from a moored boat, and loose bait, consisting of 

 boiled mackerel pounded to a pulp, is thrown overboard from 



