CHAPTER VII. 



MISCELLANEOUS FISHES. 



BONETTA, OR BONITO, 

 Scomber sarda (Mitchitt). 



This beautiful fish having of late years become more 

 abundant along our coast, and an active and lively biter at 

 the artificial squid, a place is given him among our game- 

 fishes. He frequents the same waters as the bluefish and 

 Spanish mackerel, and, if eaten broiled soon after taken, is a 

 fine table-fish, and weighs from three to fifteen pounds. " The 

 figure of this fish is cylindrically round, tapering toward the 

 head and tail ; the belly is nearly white ; back blue, similar 

 to the common mackerel. From the sides six or seven dark- 

 er lines slope upward toward the back, and about ten or a 

 dozen bands of a fainter line diversify the sides transversely 

 from head to tail ; the teeth are sharp and distinct. The 

 skin generally smooth and silky, but patches of minute scales 

 are found between the nape of the neck and the rear of the 

 pectoral fins, and sometimes at the pectoral and caudal. 

 There are eight spurious fins on the upper side toward the 

 tail and seven below. There are two dorsal fins, the fore- 

 most of which has twenty rays and the hindmost fourteen. 

 The eyes are large, and the irides yellowish ; nostrils double, 

 and the openings a quarter of an inch apart. The lateral 



