[Three Hundred Animals Contents]
OF which the figure above is an exact representation, is of a most extraordinary form. The body is not unlike that of a mackerel for the shape and colour, but the nose or upper jaw, is protracted out in a kind of lance, nearly as long, in itself, as the rest of the body. It is a vulgar error that this fish precedes and leads the phalanxes of mackerels through the regions of the deep, and, as a faithful and well-informed pilot, traces to them the way, points out the dangers, and conducts them to their destination; since it is much doubted whether mackerels travel at all, and well ascertained that the habits of this fish are entirely different from those of the mackerel. Besides as the first belongs to the genus scomber, and the other to the centriscus species and the trumpet-fish family, they cannot have any affinity. A curious singularity is, that the bones of this creature are of a bright green colour; the flesh is not so firm nor of so good a flavour as that of the mackerel, but yet the fish sells well whenever it comes to market.
