i2 4 AMERICAN FISHEL 



the estimation in which it is held by New York epicures, as it is certainly 

 savory when taken fresh from the water, leaves nothing to be desired in 

 the way of a fish diet. It is quite abundant off the Middle States, but is 

 rare much to the eastward. A few specimens are occasionally taken in 

 Buzzard's Bay and Vineyard Sound, and Dr. Storer mentions four as hav- 

 ing been captured in Massachusetts Bay. It is almost as capricious in its 

 occurrence in the more northern waters as the Lafayette, sometimes being 

 scarcely met with for several successive summers, and then suddenly reap- 

 pearing, as if migrating from more southern waters. At Beesley's Point, 

 N. J., where I have had most opportunity of studying its habits, it 

 appears quite early in the spring with the squeteague, and is found a good 

 deal in company with it, like that fish seeming to prefer a slight mixture 

 of fresh water, as shown by its keeping in the mouths of rivers and run- 

 ning farther up during the dry season. It takes bait readily and affords 

 excellent sport to the fishermen, although not caught in anything like the 

 same number in a given time as the squeteague, thirty or forty at a single 

 tide being considered an excellent catch for one boat. 



" Nothing has been recorded in regard to the precise time of their 

 spawning or the places where they lay their eggs. The young are met 

 with at Beesley's Point in immense numbers on the sandy bottom as well 

 as in the surf. The smallest were about an inch long. I have taken the 

 young also in considerable number in Vineyard Sound at a time when the 

 old fish were scarcely known. They occasionally run to a considerable 

 distance up the rivers, as I have caught young fish of this species at Sing 

 Sing, on the Hudson, where the water is scarcely brackish. The King- 

 fish run much in schools, and keep on or near a hard, sandy bottom, pre- 

 ferring the edge of channels and the vicinity of sand bars ; and they con- 

 gregate about oyster-beds, especially when the oysters are being taken up, 

 and may be seen under the boats, fighting for the worms and crustaceans 

 dislodged in the operation. They bite readily at hard or soft clams, or 

 even pieces of fish, and are taken most successfully on the young flood. 

 Like the squeteague, they will occasionly run up the salt creeks at night, 

 and may be captured in gill-nets as the water recedes. This, however, is 

 not so common a habit with them as it is with its associate. 



" The price of this fish varies at different seasons of the year, but it is 

 always well maintained, and it is generally valued at nearly as high a fig- 

 ure as the Spanish mackerel. The European analogue of this species, Um- 



