THE CAVALLY AND OTHER CARANGOIDS. 231 



West Indies and along the eastern coast of the United States. According 

 to Stearns, indivicUials of this species are rather rare in the northern j^art 

 of the Gulf, but more common along the South Florida coast. They live 

 in shallow water and in harbors, usually moving about in small schools. 

 At Key West they are caught in seines, and are eaten. 



The Scads, known in England as the "Horse-Mackerels," appear to 

 occur in all temperate and tropical waters. The distribution is given by 

 Giinther as follows : " From the coasts of the temperate parts of Europe, 

 along the coasts of Africa, round the Cape of Good Hope into the East 

 Indian seas, to the coasts of New Zealand and West America." As has 

 been shown by Liitken, Steindachner, and Jordan and Gilbert, three dis- 

 tinct species are confounded by Giinther under the name Trachicrus 

 tracliunis. 



In Europe our scad ranges north to the Trondhjem Fjord, latitude 65°, 

 and is said to occur as far south as Portugal. On the coast of Holland it 

 is known as the " Marse Banker," or '"Hors." It is interesting to 

 American ichthyologists, since the similarity of its habits to those of the 

 menhaden, so important in our waters, caused the latter fish to be called 

 among the early Dutch colonists of New York by the same name. Euro- 

 pean writers describe the Scads as occurring upon those coasts in schools 

 of immense numbers, and it would seem that although their manner of 

 swimming res'embles that of the menhaden, in their other habits they more 

 closely resemble our bluefish. They are considered to be food-fishes of 

 fair quality, and attain the length of about twelve inches. They are sup- 

 posed to spawn about the same time as the mackerel. Only three 

 specimens of this species have ever been taken in the United States, one 

 by the Fish Commission in Southern New England in 1878, and subse- 

 quently two others by Jordan and Stearns, at Pensacola. In California, 

 according to Jordan, the allied species T. picturaius occurs and is known 

 as the " HorseMackerel." He remarks: "It reaches a length of about 

 a foot and a Aveight of less than a pound. It ranges from Monterey 

 southward to Chili, appearing in California in the summer, remaining in 

 the spawning season, and disappearing before December. It arrives at 

 Santa Barbara in July, and at Monterey in August. In late summer it is 

 exceedingly abundant. It forms part of the food of larger fishes, and 

 great numbers are salted for bait. As a food-fish it is held in low esteem, 

 but whether this is due entirely to its small size we do not know. It is 

 identical with the well-known Mediterranean species." 



