122 BULLETIN OP THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 



where they have been thought to leave the coast and proceed directly out to sea, 

 but this is not established nor is their winter home known. 



The menhaden usually hug the shore in summer, most of the catch being taken 

 inside our bays, in the outer harbors, or at the farthest not over half a dozen miles 

 from land, and though this rule has its exceptions — some years they congregate 

 chiefly as much as 40 to 50 miles offshore, 1878 being an instace in point — we have 

 heard no report of menhaden in the central part of the Gulf or on Georges Bank. 



In menhaden years the fish occur all along the shores of the Gulf of Maine 

 from Cape Cod to Penobscot Bay, even to Mount Desert, but their chief centers 

 of abundance always lie in Massachusetts Bay within a mile or so of land, par- 

 ticularly off Barnstable and in the mouths of Boston and Salem Harbors, in Casco 

 Bay, among the islands, and thence to Penobscot Bay. 



Breeding habits. 21 — Menhaden spawn all along the eastern coast of the United 

 .States as far north as the southern part of the Gulf of Maine, the breeding season 

 varying with latitude. Thus spawning occurs in late fall and early winter on the 

 south Atlantic and Gulf coasts, but off the middle Atlantic States menhaden spawn 

 in summer and through the autumn, while captures of eggs and of larvse about 

 Woods Hole prove that spawning takes place there chiefly in June and continues 

 until well into October. The menhaden is equally a summer spawner in the Gulf 

 of Maine, where spent fish and others approaching maturity have been reported 

 during July and August. Up to the present, however, we have found no eggs in our 

 tow-nettings north of Cape Cod (though young fry were taken in abundance in 

 Casco Bay in October, 1900), probably because our work has been carried on during 

 a series of poor menhaden seasons. 



Menhaden eggs are buoyant and resemble those of the European pilchard (Clupea 

 pilchardus) , but are easily distinguished from the eggs of any other Gulf of Maine fish 

 by their large size (1.5 to 1.8 mm. in diameter), broad perivitelline space, small oil 

 globule (0.15 to 0.17 mm.), and very long embryo. Incubation, as Welsh found by 

 experiment, is very rapid (less than 48 hours) . The newly hatched larvae are 4.5 mm. 

 in length, growing to 5.7 mm. in four days after hatching. The dorsal and caudal 

 fins first become visible at a length of 9 mm. ; at 23 mm. all the fins are well developed ; 

 at 33 mm. scales are present; and at 41 mm. the fry show most of the characters of the 

 adult though their eyes are proportionately much larger. The youngest larva? 

 much resemble young herring, but the fins are formed, the tail becomes forked, and 

 the body deepens at a much smaller size, a menhaden of 20 mm. being as far advanced 

 in development as a herring of 35 mm., which makes it easy to distinguish the older 

 larvae of the two fish. 



Welsh concluded from examination of great numbers of fry and from measure- 

 ments and scale studies of fish of various ages that menhaden spawned in summer 

 (which would apply to most of the fry produced in the Gulf of Maine) are 6 to 8 cm. 

 (2)4 to 3M inches) long their first winter and average slightly more than 16 cm. 

 (about 6J4 inches) the second winter, while -fall-spawned fish are 3 cm. (\\i inches) 

 and about 13 cm. (about 5 inches) long in their first and second winters, respectively, 

 with every gradation between the two, depending on the precise season when the 



11 The breeding habits oi the menhaden are described t>J Kunfz and Radeliffe (1918, p. 1191 . 



