472 EEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



about the same as to abuudauce every year, when the spring run comes 

 in ; but the fall and winter run varies somewhat; some seasons not half 

 so many are seen as at others. I do not know of any real cause for this 

 difference. 



10. Only for a short time; they will return to their feeding-ground in 

 less than two hours after having been scared away by a net. 



11. In winter I do not think the ebb and flow of the tide affect their 

 movements any more than they choose to run against the tide. More 

 of them enter the sounds from sea on ebb than flood tide. In spring and 

 summer they frequent deep water on the ebb and shallow water on the 

 flood tide. 



12. During spring and summer they feed in muddy slues and chan- 

 nels on the ebb and grassy reefs and shoals on flood tide ; in moderate 

 weather, during the day and at night, they seem to drift up and down 

 the channels and sounds with the tide, either ebb or flow, and in high 

 winds they are continually ruuniug. 



13. They do not seem to be i^articular about the depth of water, as 

 some at their feeding-ground are in deep channels and others are in 

 shallow slues. They swim on the top of the water in moderate and near 

 the bottom in stormy weather. 



14. They prefer the warmest water. 



15. From what I have been able to learn they do not come on the 

 breeding-ground before they are mature. Some small fish are seen in 

 large schools, but not as a rule; the one and two years old school are by 

 themselves. 



IC. The young fish are seen in the sounds, creeks, and rivers all the 

 summer, from one to three inches long. I remember, one day during 

 last August, twenty-five miles above New Berne, I could see 50 schools 

 at once, from one to three inches long, and I noticed they were more 

 numerous nearer the mouth of the river; these come down on the coast, 

 and feed along the shores of the sounds and in the creeks until they 

 are large enough to go to sea. 



17. I think they have various ways for leaving the coast; some sea- 

 sons they may be seen going to sea in large schools, and at other times 

 they go off gradually. They leave by two runs; those that come in 

 November or December leave about the middle of January, and the 

 spring run leaves in October. 



18. They return north by the same route they came south. 



19. They spend a part of the winter in our principal fresh-water rivers, 

 and in the sounds and creeks; where they go after going to sea I do not 

 know. 



20. Mud and scum from the surface of the water and insects which 

 they find among the sea weed or grass is their principal food. 



21. These fish spawn in the Neuse, Pamlico, and Koanoke Elvers some 

 time during the month of January. 



22. From what I can learn they are mixed indiscriminately. 



