THE SPANISH MACKEREL. 
93 
one-fourth under full size, in Belfast market, to which they had been 
brought from some of the 'northern Highland lochs of Scotland ; but I 
have not any record of the occurrence of this fish on the Irish coast so 
early in the season. 
When at Newcastle (County Down) on 2nd September, 1836, I made 
the following note : — “ Mackerel have only been taken at Newcastle 
within the last fortnight, although 10 miles southward they were caught 
a month before. This difference in time (I am informed by Mr. G. Hy- 
land) is annually observed.” 
The modes of capture of the mackerel have been described in Smith’s 
Waterford, and Maxwell’s Wild Sports (the description contained in 
the latter work having been considered by Mr. Yarrell w r orthy of a place 
in his work on British Fishes) ; but the following extract from Dr. Ball’s 
lecture, already quoted, will sufficiently inform the readers as to the 
means usually employed : — 
“ The mackerel is taken in various ways, one of which is very attractive to the 
amateur. It is fishing, while under a smart sail, with a line and single hook ; 
the bait may he anything bright, such as a bit of red ribbon. The first fish 
caught will supply a more attractive one, called a lashing, being a narrow band 
cut from the silvery part near the tail of the fish. They are also taken by boys 
who fish from the rocks with a rude apparatus consisting of a pole, a piece 
of rope-yarn, with an appended fly, made of a crooked nail, with a white 
feather and red worsted attached, but the greatest numbers are caught in drift- 
nets.’ 5 * 
In the months of July and August, 1850, mackerel were unusually 
abundant on the North-East coast, and great numbers were taken in Bel- 
fast Bay, Strangford Lough, and at Newcastle. On the 24th August, 26 
boats were employed in fishing between Greypoint and Crawfordsburn 
(Belfast Bay), and with great success. Twenty-nine dozen were taken by 
one boat, and the others captured smaller numbers, varying down to 12 
dozen each. One of the fishermen at Newcastle (James Hill) informed 
me that 4 men in his boat took 100 dozen in 8 hours — i. e. 4 hours in 
the morning and 4 in the afternoon. Another crew of 3 men were said 
to have caught 35 dozen in the course of one morning. The bait gener- 
ally used was a piece cut from the side of a freshly-caught mackerel, but 
I knew one instance of the spotted gunnel ( Murcenoides guttata) being 
used successfully. 
When in pursuit of herring-fry swimming at the surface, mackerel are 
said to cause the semblance of a heavy shower upon the water. 
The Spanish Mackerel, Scomber maculatus, Couch. 
In the Annals of Nat. Hist. (vol. vii. p. 479) I published the following 
note relative to this species. I have not been able to obtain more de- 
finite information respecting it : — 
“ Scomber maculatus, Couch ? Spanish Mackerel. Mr. McCalla, having 
mentioned the occurrence of this fish on the coast of Connemara, replied to my 
queries as follows : — 1 The fish which I consider to be this, is found with the 
mackerel, and, in some seasons, not uncommonly. It is known by the name of 
Spanish Mackerel, Avhich was no doubt first applied to it here by the coast- 
guard, many of whom have been in the navy. I have not seen any specimens 
of S. maculatus this year (1840), but on carefully looking to the characters given 
by Couch (Jenyns’s Manual) am of opinion that it is the above species. I 
* “A novel and successful bait recently used, is about two inches of the stem 
of a tobacco pipe, put on the line down to the hook.” — B. Ball. 
