SCOMBRID^. 95 



Habits. — They are generally considered as very timorous and easUy frightened : 

 for example, it is recorded that due to the earthquake which overthrew Lisbon 

 in 1765, some alteration was occasioned in the character or conformation of the 

 coast which has caused these fishes ever since to prefer the African shore. In 

 Cornwall they mostly arrive in August, with the pilchards, or even earlier as 

 July, and continue until the end of October or even into November. They 

 pursue smaller fishes with great rapidity, and seem especially pleased when 

 among pilchards, Ghipea pilchardus, the skipper, Esox saurus, or the herring, 

 Glupea harmgus, and have even been observed to spring after the skipper as 

 it jumps out of the sea to try and avoid its foe. But as the winter sets in, they 

 appear to become inactive, reviving again the succeeding spring. It has been 

 surmised that the large and solitary tunnies, which are occasionally found off our 

 coast, are such as for some cause have parted company from others of their kind. 

 It may be that having outlived the influence of sex, they have wearied of the 

 further society of their fellows : or else that, like the rogue elephants, they have 

 been expelled. Smaller tunnies are observed in limited companies off our coasts, 

 being occasionally seen in Cornwall, and have been captured La herring nets at 

 Yarmouth.* 



That tunnies, similarly to their relations the common mackerel, undertake 

 periodical migrations has been abundantly proved, but that all do so or that their 

 extent is as great as was formerly supposed is open to question. They were 

 believed to congregate in the Atlantic, and passing the Spanish coast to enter 

 the Mediterranean in immense shoals, continuing their course on to the Black 

 Sea in order to deposit their spawn there, while in this migration they rarely 

 passed far from the coast. Diminished in numbers, they enter the Bosphorus, 

 where, Pliny observed, that apparently alarmed at the presence of a white rock, 

 they then cross to the opposite side termed the " Golden Horn," reputed to 

 have received its name from the wealth which these fishes bring. When 

 the time arrives for their leaving the Black Sea, they await a north wind and 

 pass out at the opposite side to the one on which they entered. These interesting 

 accounts of how the Bosphorus is passed are now stated to be fictitious. Off 

 Spain these fishes arrive in three distinct batches, the first being composed 

 of large individuals weighing four to five hundredweight, the second of 

 such as are from two to three hundredweight, and the third smaller. As 

 was remarked above as occurring in the common mackerel, those of different 

 ages are apt to keep in companies. At Cadiz they are captured going towards 

 the Mediterranean, but not on their return, whereas at Gibraltar and Tarifa 

 they are fished for both coming and returning, the fishes at the first period 

 being the largest and the best. While at Ceuta, on the opposite coast, they 

 are rare, being taken on arrival but not while returning from the Mediter- 

 ranean. Duhamel observes that they arrive in May and stay until the end of 

 June in Corsica, Sardinia, Catalonia, and Sicily, but he likewise remarks that 

 they fish for them in Catalonia until October, the late catches perhaps being 

 returning fish. At Agde in the Gulf of Lyons, they are taken from April until 

 September, and in Provence from June until September : while in the inter- 

 mediate locality of Ciotat at the mouth of the Rhone, the first fishery is from 

 their arrival in March until July 15th, after which date until October, the 

 returning fishes are said to be taken in large numbers. In the not far distant 

 locality of Cassis, they capture these fishes in November until the end of 

 December, showing that some at least most probably remain in the Mediterranean, 

 to the depths of which sea many must retire during the winter months. 



Modes of capture. — OS. the Cornish coast the tunny is mostly taken in 

 mackerel or pilchard drift nets, or accidentally when fishing for herring or other 

 species of fish. Its presence being more or less accidental and its value in- 

 considerable, it can only be said to be accidentally captured. 



But in some parts of the Mediterranean, more especially at either extremity 

 of that sea, tunny fisheries have been carried on from almost immemorial ages. 



* Some authorilics liavc looked upon the small tunnies taken off Yarmouth as honitos. 



