278 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 



pale belly is bounded by a dark longitudinal streak on either side. The fins are 

 dusky or blackish, the first dorsal, anal, pectorals, and ventrals tipped with dirty 

 wliite. 



Size. — Kingfish grow to a maximum weight of about six pounds, but fish as 

 lai^e as this are rare, the general run being only 1 to 3 pounds. They average 

 about 13% inches in length in their third winter.'" 



General range. — Gulf and Atlantic coasts of the United States; common 

 northward to Cape Cod; casual to Casco Bay. 



Occurrence in the Gulf of Maine. — This excellent food fish is onl}' a stray from 

 the south in the Gulf of Maine. So far as we can learn the only positive records 

 of it within our limits from south to north are as follows: Monomoy and North 

 Truro on Cape Cod in 1896 (collected by Dr. W. C. Kendall) ; one specimen taken 

 at Provincetown, July, 1846; another there in November, 1847; and many small 

 ones, apparently chilled by the cold, that appeared in that harbor in 1879; one 

 taken at the entrance of Boston Harbor in a lobster pot some time before 1833; 

 one at Lynn in 1840; one 8 inches long off Marblehead on October 15, 1872; one 

 of 63^ inches at Danvers, October 28, 1874; others at Nahant (one record) and 

 in Casco Bay. Thus it is evidently an unusual event for even an odd kingfish 

 or for a small school of its fry to round the elbow of Cape Cod.*" 



Kingfish were once fairly common along the southern New England coast. 

 In 1889, for example, about 4,000 pounds were returned for Massachusetts and 

 almost 10,000 pounds for Rhode Island, but since that time they have so diminished 

 that in 1919 the Massachusetts catch was only 72 pounds while none at all was 

 reported from Rhode Island. 



Food and habits. — Kingfish, like squeteague, are summer fish, appearing in 

 May and vanishing in October. They are confined to the immediate vicinity of 

 the coast during their stay, frequenting inclosed as well as open waters and even 

 entering river mouths. They are unknown on the offshore banks. Kingfish run 

 in schools, keep close to the ground, prefer hard or sandy bottom, and feed on 

 various shrimps (perhaps their chief diet), crabs, and other crustaceans, small 

 mollusks, worms, and on young fish. As they bite readily and fight well they are 

 a favorite game fish for anglers with rod and reel. 



Breeding habits. — Kingfish spawn in bays and sounds from June until August, 

 but it is not likely that any larvae that might be hatched in the Gulf of Maine 

 from eggs laid by the occasional visitors would survive its low temperature. Welsh 

 and Breder (1924, p. 190) describe the spawning and early development of this 

 species. 



The eggs are buoyant, 0.76 to 0.92 mm. in diameter, with one to several oil 

 globules that coalesce as development proceeds. Incubation occupies about 46 

 hours at a temperature of 68°. Newly hatched larvae are 2 to 2.5 mm. long. When 

 hatched, the larvae float inverted, but as the yolk shrinks they assume the normal 

 position. By the fourth day the yolk is wholly absorbed and the mouth formed. 



" Welsh and Breder, 1924, p. 194. 



'" Small amounts of "kingflsh" appear in the pound-net returns published by the State of Massachusetts at various locali- 

 ties in Massachusetts Bay, but fishermen inform us that these are not the true kingfish but some large species of mackerel or 

 bonito. 



