CHAPTEE XII. 



SCOMBERID^ (continued). 



The Maceekel. 



His mistum jus est oleo, quod prima Venafri 

 Pressit cella ; garo de suoois piscis Iberi. — Hor. 



Stcofi^po'i and Lacertus, (words by whichj though one 

 fish only was at first intended, several species came by 

 degrees to be included,) are the Greek and Latin equiva- 

 lents for mackerel. It would have been impossible to 

 guess the subgeneric import of the Greek, but from the 

 known meaning of the Latin word ; for when PHny tells 

 us that the coliasis the smallest kind of lacertus, ' colias 

 lacertorum minimus,' it becomes certain that the Latins 

 under that term (and we may suppose the Greeks under 

 its equivalent, o-ko/u./Sjoo?) recognized and designed several 

 sorts of mackerel. As to the ancient colias, it seems, 

 from the accounts given of its dimensions by Athenaeus 

 (who compares it to a sardine), to be probably the S. 

 pneumatophorus, a species much smaller than our own 

 mackerel, and of frequent occurrence in the Nice and 

 Naples markets.* Both S. colias, S. pneumatophorus, 

 and S. scomber are yet confounded by the lazzaroni in 

 vernacular patois, under the common denomination of 

 scurmu ; and as all mackerel are nearly similar in form, 

 hue, and the ' scoliograptic' markings of their sides and 

 backs, it is probable that the ancients (who, like the 

 Neapolitan sailors, were ignorant of any internal anato- 



* Of these mackerel, often immature, and perhaps not more 

 than two-thirds grown, from four to five go to make up a rotolo, 

 i. e. two pounds. 



