THE SPANISH MACKEEEL. 377 



neck, gill-covers and belly, a resplendent white. Ventral, 

 anal, and spurious lower fins exhibit a whiteness scarcely 

 less brilliant. About twenty golden-yellow spots, some of 

 them a quarter of an inch in diameter, decorate the sides 

 and impart to them a gay appearance. The lateral line does 

 not travel straight, but crooks and meanders toward the 

 tail. Eight Unlets above, and as many below. Two dorsal 

 fins, with a small spine between them. Second dorsal fin and 

 finlets and caudal brown. Tail widens almost into a cres- 

 cent. Mouth large and armed with distinct and cuspidated 

 teeth. The meat of this fish is the most delicate and high 

 flavored of any of the ocean species, and is considered equal 

 to the sheepshead, salmon, or white-fish of the lakes, and, as 

 if to tickle the palates of the New-Yorkers, he has conde- 

 scended for the past few years to make his visit to the bays 

 and sound in greater numbers than at his first advent in 

 1815. He does not take the metal squid as readily as the 

 bluefish or bonita, and the dealers in the implements of the 

 art have contrived different devices for his capture, com- 

 posed of bone, tin, ivory, and pearl, to which is attached 

 scarlet ibis-feathers, red worsted or strips of red flannel, 

 fastened to the usual bluefish line. No angler should rest 

 satisfied until he has taken a Scomber maculatis. Go, then, 

 when you hear of his coming in July, visit his sporting 

 grounds, which are the same as the bluefish's, view him as he 

 leaps from the emerald wave : careful, now, as you haul him 

 in, lest you spoil your prospects for dinner, for he is tender- 

 mouthed, and will not bear as rough usage as others that 

 take the squid, and moreover he is apt to swim deeper after 

 being hooked, and when your sport is over enjoy a feast 

 from his delicate flesh fresh from the gridiron, the only true 

 method of cooking him, and you will never regret 



