The Spanish mackerel has the outline of the slender mackerel rather than of the stout bonito, its body being nearly 4½ to 5 times as long as it is deep. But there is no danger of confusing it with either of the true mackerels, first, because its two dorsal fins (like those of the bonitos) are hardly separated, and second, because of its color pattern, Its high second dorsal, slender form, and spotted sides mark it off at first glance from our bonitos, while its color, slender form, long first-dorsal fin, and the outline of its second dorsal distinguish it from a small tuna. The most clear-cut distinction between the Spanish and its close relatives the king mackerel and the cavalla, is that the pectoral fins of the Spanish are naked but those of the last two are mostly covered with scales. The ventral fins, also, originate definitely behind the origin of the first dorsal in the Spanish, under it or only a very little rearward in the king; and the color differs.

The Spanish mackerel is dark bluish or blue green above, pale below, like all scombroids, and silvery, its sides marked with many small, oblong-oval, dull orange or yellowish, spots, both above the lateral line and below, these spots being a very diagnostic character.

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