SCOMBRID^. 85 



pneimatophorusa.Tii S. colias, wbich may be varieties of a single species, are both 

 provided with ^an air-bladder : whereas those which are without it have been 

 described as Scomber scomber, Linn. 5'. punctatus and 8. soriptus, Couch. On 

 April 21st,_ 1880, I received from Mr. Dunn of Mevagissey, an example (figured 

 plate xxxiii) of S. punctatus, a female 14 inches in length, with the ova not quite 

 mature. D. IS/Jy+v, P. 21, V. 1/5, A. l/^V+v, C. 17. Its proportions are 

 as m 8. scomber and it has no air-bladder, in fact it is a variety in colour of the 

 common species. I have not obtained 8. scriptus, but it appears to be another 

 variation in markings of the common mackerel, like which it is destitute of an 

 air-bladder. Couch, plate Ixxx, below the Spanish mackerel, 8. colias, has 

 figured what appears to be another variation in colour, and in which the eye 

 was similar in size to 8. scomber, while it also had no air-bladder. Mr. Dunn 

 has drawn attention to the spotted and scribbled varieties being seldom if ever 

 seen in the winter or spring. They come with the summer shoals. 



_ Mr. Cornish observed that on May 14th, 1874, he came in the steamer from 

 Scilly, bringing mackerel over for the London market, they were washed on 

 board and " the result of my inspection is a strong opinion, that so far as outward 

 differences are concerned, the distinction between the common mackerel, 8comber 

 scomber, the dotted mackerel, 8. punctatus, Couch, and the scribbled mackerel, 

 8. soriptus, cannot be maintained, and I should include the Spanish mackerel, 

 8. colias, in the hst but for its size. In the lot which I watched, from 12,000 to 

 15,000 iish, there were fish of every grade of marking, and a large percentage 

 having the sharp pointed head attributed by Couch to the Spanish mackerel. 

 I have no doubt that I could have picked out four fish, each of which should 

 answer precisely to the description of one of the four fish mentioned above, and 

 differing each largely from the other three : but I could have supplied the gaps 

 between them with variety after variety, until no one should be able to say where 

 one species began and the other ended."* Mr. Dunn mentions some red-finned 

 varieties which the Mevagissey fishermen carefully look for, as when they appear 

 quantities of fish are usually off the coast. 



Names. — Mackerel, formerly spelt macquerelle. Sionnach, pronounced ronacJi, 

 Celtic, in Moray Firth (Gordon), shiners, young off North Coast. Le Maquereau 

 commun, French. Makreel, Dutch. The term mackerel has rather improbably 

 been supposed to have been derived from macularius or spotted. 



Habits. — Mackerel are a gregarious wandering form of pelagic fishes which 

 remain off our coasts throughout the year, and at certain seasons approach the 

 shores in countless multitudes, either prior to, during, or after breeding : or else for 

 predaceous purposes. Occasionally they forsake their usual haunts, thus from 

 May to July they were formerly abundant at Yarmouth and Lowestoft, whereas 

 now numbers come in with the hemngs, having deferred their advent to a later 

 period in the season ; or they may even antedate their usual appearance, as will 

 be remarked upon. Formerly, they were supposed to undertake long migrations 

 annually from the north towards the south at one season and subsequently the 

 reverse. Lacepfede, on the authority of Admiral Pleville-Lepley, actually asserted 

 that in some small and almost land-locked bays off Greenland, where the water is 

 always clear and the bottom consists of soft mud, myriads of mackerel might be 

 seen at the beginning of spring, with their heads inserted several inches into the 

 mud, and their tails vertically elevated. He continued that in this manner and 

 in a state of torpor they passed the winter, while during the first fifteen or twenty 

 days after their reappearance they were aflected by a sort of blindness and could 

 be easily netted, but that subsequently they had to be captured by means of 

 hooks and baits ! 



It is during the winter months or in the early period of the year, as January 

 or February, that these fish usually commence to move from the deeper portions 

 of the Atlantic towards the British coast, and in May or June large shoals of 

 spawning fish appear to the south west of the Scilly Isles, some portion passing 

 towards the Bristol or St. George's Channels, or Ireland in a north or north- 



* Z.wlogist, 1874, p. -lU.TV. 



