I90 AMERICAN FISHES. 



Hook and Chesapeake regions, but also on the southern shore of Long 

 Island, and in the sounds of the Carolinas. 



In the Carolinas, he tells us, the spawning season begins in April, in the 

 Chesapeake region from the first to the middle of June, in the Sandy 

 Hook region and about Long Island, from the latter part of August to the 

 first of September. In the Gulf, according to Stearns, the season is in 

 July. The season continues in any given locality from six to ten weeks, 

 and the spawners, contrary to what occurs in shad, salmon and white-fish, 

 require several weeks rather than a few days only to deposit their indi- 

 vidual building of eggs. A one pound Spanish Mackerel will yield about 

 300,000 eggs, a six pounder scarcely less than 1,500,000; the species 

 being much more prolific than salmon, shad or white-fish, though less so 

 than the members of the cod family. The eggs are minute, from }„ to .,\ 

 of an inch in diameter, and over a million can be held within the walls of 

 a quart measure. Their specific gravity is such that they will sink in 

 fresh water and float in the sea. 



When first hatched. Mackerel is very small, and the length of the em- 

 bryo scarcely exceeds one-tenth of an inch, while its diameter, even with 

 the comparatively large yelk-sac, is so small as to allow it to pass through 

 Avire-cloth having thirty-two wires to the inch. For several hours it 

 remains quiet at the surface in an almost helpless condition, small oil 

 globule in the yelk-sac causing it to lie belly uppermost. Later the sac 

 is absorbed, and the little fish manifests greater activity, and by vigorous 

 and spasmodic efforts swim to the depth of an inch or so below the surface. 

 In a few hours it finds no difficulty in swimming at various dei)ths, and 

 begins to lie upon the bottom of the vessel, darting off with surprising 

 rapidity when disturbed. 



The rate of growth has not been studied. Earll supposed that the 

 yearling fish are not more than six inches long, and those of two years, to 

 be the young fish of a half-pound weight, observed by Genio C. Scott in 

 the Long Island region. It is scarcely probable that the species attains 

 full size in less than four years. The annual growth of so voracious a 

 species is doubtless considerable after the first two years. The species 

 sometimes attains the weight of eight or nine pounds, though it rarely 

 exceeds three or four pounds. A specimen taken off Block Island, July 8, 

 1874, the first of the season, measured twenty-six and one-fourth inches 

 and weighed three jiounds and fi\-e ounces. It is said to be the largest 



