THE FISHES OF RHODE ISLAND. 



III. *THE FISHES OF THE MACKEREL FAMILY. 



BY HENRY C. TRACY, A. M., 



BROWN UNIVERSITY. 



One of the most important of the natural groups of fishes is the 

 Mackerel family. The Mackerels are of especial interest, since they 

 have, for a long time, been of great value to man on account of their 

 desirability for food, and because of the commercial importance of 

 the enormous number of fishes which are caught every year from 

 their vast migratory schools. 



The Mackerel family, as a whole, is cosmopolitan, and has repre- 

 sentatives in the oceans of all temperate and tropical regions. None 

 of them occur in the Polar seas. ^lost of the species of the family, 

 also, have a wide distribution. Some of them, like the Common 

 Mackerel, prefer the cool water of the temperate zone, while others, 

 like the Frigate Mackerel and the Spanish Mackerel, prefer warm 

 and tropical seas; but in either case their -migratory habits cause 

 them to traverse wide areas of ocean and thus become, perhaps, the 

 most widely distributed of any of the groups of fishes. 



In habits and mode of life all the Mackerels show a strong family 

 resemblance. They all feed on similar kinds of food and have 

 essentially the same breeding habits. Since feeding and repro- 

 duction are the dominant factors in the lives of all organisms, it is 



*The first paper in this series was entitled "A List of the Fishes of Rhode Island," and ap. 

 peared in the thirty-sixth Report, for 1905, page 38: the second paper, "The Common Fishes 

 of the Herring Family," appeared in the same report, page 100. 

 5 



