Page:Natural History, Fishes.djvu/154

140 excite. He who has experienced the glorious sensations of sailing on the Western Ocean, a bright autumnal sky above, a deep green lucid swell around, a steady breeze, and as much of it as the hooker can stand up to, will estimate the exquisite enjoyment our morning's Mackerel-fishing afforded."

The fishes of this fine Family are predatory and voracious, devouring great numbers of fishes smaller than themselves, which their muscularity and high powers of swimming enable them to overtake and subdue with facility. The Mackerel offers no exception to this character of the Family; it pursues with eagerness the fry of other fishes, and in particular the young of a small species of Clupea, which Mr. Yarrell supposes to be the Sprat.

On our southern coast the Mackerel deposits its spawn in June, which is hatched by the end of the month. The young fry increase rapidly in size, so that by the end of August they are found from four to six inches in length, and by November have attained half their adult growth. About this time they retire into deep-water, and appear no more as fry.

The greatly compressed form of the Coryphenes, in which the vertical diameter so greatly exceeds the transverse, and the elongation of some among these, prepare the student for the contemplation of the present Family, in which