SPANISH MACKAREL. 
79 
iphich it is known to fishermen. In the memory of many 
persons this species has not unfrequently been caught in nets 
in Cornwall; where alone hitherto it has been found with us, 
and sometimes to the number of three or four hundred at a 
tune, in the summer or autumn; but for several years it has 
become much more rare. 
It appears to be widely spread in the ocean; for besides the 
Mediterranean it is also found on the coasts of America; but 
its specific habits are little known. I have formerly been told 
of its having taken the hook, but no certain instance of this 
bas fallen within my own observation. For the table it is much 
below our Common Mackarel. 
Tbe example described measured in length fourteen inches 
nnd a half, the figure round and plump, in girth six inches 
and a half near the pectoral fins; the thickness of shape being 
carried backward to the tail more than in the Common 
Mackarel. The head bulky, eye large, an inch and an eighth 
from the snout; mouth large, jarvs equal, teeth small, tongue 
moveable and pointed. From the snout to the pectoral fin 
three inches and a half. Rays of the gill membrane concealed; 
lateral line at first slightly descending, then straight. Some 
scales on the superior portion of the gill-cover; and on the 
body more visible than in the Common Mackarel. First doisal 
fin in a chink, seven rays counted, the first shortest, second 
and third of equal length. In counting the finlets I numbered 
the second dorsal and anal among them as six in ^ number, 
these first-named fins being low; tail forked, and at its oiigin 
doubly keeled; vent prominent. The colour a dark blue on 
the back, with waved stripes, but fewer and more obscure than 
in the Common Mackarel; a row of large dark spots from the 
pectoral fin to the tail; sides and belly thickly covered with 
smaller dusky spots. The tail, gill-covers and sides, and behind 
the eye, bright yellow. 
Another example, ftom which our lower figure on the plate 
is taken, I find to differ in so many particulars, and those not 
nf markings only, that I have been led to suppose it not 
improbable to be a different species ; but I prefer leaving this for 
further observation, and proceed to point out its characters, 
^ithout being able to give anything of its history beyond the 
inct that it was a male, with the milt not much enlarged on 
