56 
SCIJENA. 
according to Lacepcde, the Sciscna is marlced with the posterior 
spine, without the serrations. 
This fish not unfrequently comes to our waters in the summer 
and autumn, and sometimes in no inconsiderable numbers. 
Its great beauty of colour and boldness cause it to be much 
noticed by fishermen, and from them, in different seasons, I 
have obtained some interesting information as regards its 
habits. Eor a few years in succession, from 1849, they 
attended on the boats that were engaged in the Pilchard 
fishery on the south coast of Cornwall; and although they 
never attempted to take fishes from the floating nets, the 
eager Scitena would dart greedily after any that fell out of 
them or were thrown to it, and in so doing its appetite could 
scarcely be satisfied. It would approach close to the boat for 
food; and this fearlessness it was that aflbrded observers the 
opportunity of discerning the form, size, and colours of these 
fishes; and by these means, compared with former opportunities 
of examination more at leisure, I was enabled to form a 
definite opinion of their identity. Put the endeavours made 
to catch them proved for the most part unsuccessful, for their 
strength was in proportion to their swiftness and size, so that 
the best lines were snapped asunder with apparent ease, and 
they escaped capture, although perhaps they carried away 
their death with them in the several hooks of the fishermen. 
I have had an opportunity of examining two examples of 
this species as they came fresh from the water, and thus had 
an opportunity of making notes of their colour, which was 
alike in both instances; but a third which came under my 
notice in London, in company with my friend Mr. Yarrell, 
was without all this splendour of tints, so that the fish would 
scarcely have been recognised except by close examination. 
A specimen also which is described by Professor Nilsson, in 
Sweden, was also much plainer in colours, as we shall presently 
see, and thereby seems to afford a proof that a change of 
water or season will materially modify the appearance, as we 
know to be the case indeed with many other fishes. 
It appears that when these fishes come to our neighbourhood 
it is in scattered companies, and that then their wanderings 
are not confined within narrow hounds. Mr. Thompson, of 
Weymouth, had noticed the occurrence of at least a single 
