Scomber colias? (The Spanish Mackerel?)
As will be seen, I have placed this species here as doubtful. A mackerel differing in many respects from the one noted above, and which agrees very well with Scomber colias, was taken off Portknockie, but by the time I had the pleasure of seeing it, it was a good deal disfigured. Still, as I have already said, it exhibited many of the markings and other characteristics of the Spanish Mackerel.
Thynnus vulgaris (The Tunny).
Several specimens of this fish have, from time to time, been taken with us. A very large one was captured in a salmon-net at Portsoy. It measured over nine feet in length, and six feet in girth.
Xiphias gladius [The Sword Fish].
A small specimen of this fish—rare on this part of the coast—was caught in our harbour by a shrimper.
Naucrates ductor [The Pilot Fish].
A very fine specimen of this rare and rather peculiar fish was taken in our bay some years ago, and was exhibited as a curiosity. It was unknown in the place, and also to the person who took it; but an old tar chancing to see it, who had seen some service abroad, having hitched up his trousers, and rid his mouth of a yard or two of tobacco juice, exclaimed, with something of a knowing air—“Well, I’ll be blowed if that aint a Pilot; and a pretty one it is, too. We used to see them often, when sailing in the Mediterranean.”
Caranx trachurus [The Scad or Horse Mackerel], or, as it is termed here, the “Buck Mackerel,” is not very numerous, and is very seldom used as an article of food. Its appearance here, is usually about the time of herring-fishing. I once found a rather strange variety of this species. It was about the usual size; but it was all over of a most beautiful golden yellow, finely striped and variegated with numerous lines of the brightest blue, except the fins, which were of the finest carmine.
Lampris guttatus [The Opah or King Fish] has occurred on several occasions; as off Troup Head, at Black Pots, on the shore near Portsoy, and at Buckie.