212 PEOSB HAXIEUTICS. 



doubtful, Aldrovandi's ' magarellos seu nacareUos e cor- 

 poris nacritudine/ seems the most plausible; the shot 

 lustrous surface of the belly and sides is certainly na- 

 crous ; while we are distinctly taught in our Church Ca- 

 techism that in regard to a name, an M or N are indif- 

 ferent, and in fact the change of one of these liquids into 

 the other never offers any real difficulty in etymology. 

 Touching the nomenclatiu'e of that particular kind called 

 sometimes Spanish, sometimes horse-mackerel, though 

 the latter adjunct often expresses no more than size or 

 coarseness — as in qualifying the words laugh, mushroom, 

 chestnut, or radish, — ^it is quite possible in this case that 

 it may merely be the translation of cavallo, which in 

 that language not only means horse, but mackerel as well. 

 Concerning the opprobrious employment of this word to 

 designate a certain class of villains, called in Latin le- 

 nones, and ruffiani in Italian, M. Lacepede, after Belon, 

 gives the following interpretation : — ' C'est h raison de 

 la rencontre des maquereaux avec les petits aloses ou pu- 

 celles vers le temps oii celles-ci vont frayer avec les miles, 

 qu'on a donne ce vilain nom (maquereau), qu'U porte en 

 Prance et dans quelques autres pays.' 



All of our own race are not equally quick- sighted ; 

 and so it is with fish : some, like the shark, are famed 

 for discerning their prey at great distances ; others, hke 

 the waU-eyed thunny, are as proverbially blind : such 

 differences depend, no doubt, on the varying conformation 

 of the eyeball itself, or on the greater or less trans- 

 parency of the humours it contains, on varying degrees 

 of convexity and density in cornea and crystalline lens, 

 or on the amount of optic nerve supplying the organ. 

 To some such deficiency or abnormal peculiarity of 

 structure in these several parts, is probably owing that 

 singular propensity to be caught by gaudy and glittering 

 baits, which distinguishes many members of the scom- 

 ber family. The dorado, for instance, which, under the 



