THE MACKE. EL. 
‘ 0.1 
Genus XL The Mackrel *. 
JL his is one tribe of tbofe ftioals of migratory fifties, which 
annually vifit our coaft ; and it is perhaps among the 
mcft celebrated of that clafs, both for its numbers and 
the delicacy of its food. They are gregarious in their 
habits ; and while other fifties continue in our vicinity all 
the year round, and proul along the flrore in final) sum- 
bers, or folitary, thefe in a compaft band vifit their ac- 
cuftomed haunts at ftated leafons with fo much regula- 
rity, that you can pronounce with certainty the time of 
their appearance. 
What impels the mackrel and other migratory fifties to 
undertake fuch diftant voyages, what di reels their courfe 
and what fupports them upon their pafihge, are fubjefts 
on which naturalifts have indulged in all the licence 
of conje&ure, without being able to form any fatisfafto- 
ry determination. Some have imagined, that we owe 
the vifits of the whiting, the haddock, and the mackrel, 
rather to their fears than their appetite ; and that they 
are driven upon our coafts in endeavouring to avoid the 
purfuit of their deftroyers. It is, however, more proba- 
ble, that they approach the fhore in queft of food, which 
is found in greater plenty there than in the depths of the 
fea+. 
Vol. Ill* G g j t 
* Scomba, Rondel. Scomba, Scomba, Lin. Syft, 
t Goldiini:h’» Nat. Hift. vol. vi, p. 326. 
