THE MACKREL. 
235 
variegated with the fined hues of green, blue, and fil- 
ver *. The common mackrel is from a foot to a foot 
and a half; the body thick, round, and fielhy, but ta- 
pering to a flender point as it approaches the tail, which 
is bifurcated The fcales are fo fmall as to be hardly 
perceptible; behind the anal and fecond dorfal fin there 
are feveral protuberances or fpurious fins, both above 
and below f: Thefe may be deemed the diftinguifiiing 
marks of this animal, which is too well known to re- 
buke a more particular defcription. 
The Tunny %, 
This fpecies is well known in the Mediterranean, which 
they annually enter from the Atlantic ocean ; and are ta- 
ken by the inhabitants of the coafts of Spain and Italy 
as they advance. They were fuppofed by the ancients 
to breed in the Levant, and Pa/us Mcetis. Some of them 
grow to an immenfe fiz.e, weighing above four hundred 
pounds; a magnitude which feems altogether incompati- 
ble with the fhort life which the ancients allotted to thefe 
animals : Both Pliny and A rift otic aflert, that two years 
is the utrnoft period of the life of a tunny §. 
A very extenfive tunny fiihery was carried on by the 
ancients in the Mediterranean ; particular fictions being 
G g 2 fixed 
* Britiili Zoology, gen. 29. f Wfflongh. p. 185. 
t Thor.nus, Rondel. Scomber Thimmis, Lyn. Svft. 
5 Hift. Acini. Lib. ii. cap. 13. 
