808 General Notes. [ November, 
lius of Leucifer leaves the egg encased in a similar skin, and 
molts it soon after, seems to indicate, that it has no morphological 
significance.— W. K. Brooks, Beaufort, N. C., Sept. 5. 
THE FRIGATE MACKEREL, AUXIS ROCHEI, ON THE NEW ENGLAND 
Coast. — The United States Fish Commission has obtained 
numerous specimens of a fish, before entirely unknown in the 
Western Atlantic. This is the frigate mackerel, Auris rochet, 
twenty-eight barrels of which were taken in a mackerel seine, ten 
miles east of Block island, on the 3d of August, by the schooner 
American Eagle, Capt. Josiah Chase, of Provinceton, Mass. ~ 
The Frigate mackerel resembles in some particulars the com- 
mon mackerel, in others the bonito; the genus Auxis being inter- 
mediate in its character between the Scomber and the related - 
genera Pelamys and Orcynus. It has the two dorsal fins remote 
from each other as in Scomber, and the general form of the body 
is slender, like that of the mackerel. The body is, however, 
somewhat stouter, and instead of being covered with small scales 
of uniform size, has a corselet of larger scales under and behind 
the pectoral fins. Instead of the two small keels upon each side 
of the tail which are so noticeable in the mackerel, it has the sin- 
gle more prominent keel of the bonito and the tunny. Its color 
is grayish-blue, something like that of the pollack, the belly being 
lighter than the back. Under the posterior part of the body, 
above the lateral line, are a few cloudings or maculations resem- 
bling those of the mackerel. The occurrence of a large school 
of this beautiful species in our waters is very noteworthy, for the 
fish now for the first time observed are very possibly the precur- 
sors of numerous schools yet to follow. It is not many yea 
since the bonito became an inhabitant of our waters, and the dis- 
tribution and habits of the frigate mackerel are supposed to be 
very similar to those of the bonito, Sarda pelamys, and the little 
tunny, Orcynus alliteratus, which also first came on the coast 1m 
1871, and have since been found in considerable numbers. — 
The frigate mackerel has been observed in the West Indies and 
other parts of the tropical Atlantic as well as on the coast © 
Europe. In Great Britain it is called the “ plain benito.” It 15 
not unusual in the Bermudas, where it is called the “ frigate 
mackerel,” a name not inappropriate for adoption in this ile RE 
since its general appearance is more like that of the mackere 
than the bonito, while in swiftness and strength it is more like the 
larger members of this family. ME 
Since the first appearance of this fish many new observations 
of its abundance have been received. These fish seem to have 
men in previous years. Several vessels have come into Newport 
recently, reporting their presence in immense numbers 19 
