68 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



(5.) It explains better than the other theories the appearance of the 

 fish at the time of their arrival in the spring. 



The menhaden appear to be bottom feeders. If they migrated coast- 

 wise to the south, they would there find feeding-grounds; if they sank 

 to the bottom, they would there find food if they had sufficient vitality 

 to resurrect themselves in the spring; if they passed the winter in the 

 mid-ocean strata, they could obtain no food and would naturally become 

 emaciated, the accumulated fat of the preceding summer being absorbed. 



Bimhaud's classification criticised and a new one proposed. 



91. Rimbaud's classification, which is a modification of one recognized 

 in the markets of South France, is very suggestive, but it does not 

 appear to me to be entirely applicable to the fishes of our coast, at least 

 not in the way in which it has usually been adopted. 



Eimbaud makes four divisions, viz : 



I. Wandering fishes {Poisson nomade). 



II. White fishes {Poisson hlanc). 



III. Bottom fishes {Poisson de roche or Poisson de fond). 



IV. Alien or outside fishes {Poisson for ain). 



The distinction between Classes I and IV does not appear to be very 

 clearly marked. In the Western Atlantic, some of the fishes,making up 

 Class IV belong to each of the other classes. 



A more natural classification would be in three divisions, which might 

 readily be correlated with the three kinds of migration mentioned in 

 the preceding para«raph. ^, 7> • „.^ 



The first group would include the wandering fishes, the Poisson 

 nomade of Kimbaud, whose migrations are entirely oceanic and con- 

 fined to the surface zones. The second group would include the bottom 

 fishes of restricted range, the Poisson de fond of Eimbaud, which move 

 to and from the shore or the shallows, and which do not range, ihe 

 third group would include the middle classes, those which take advan- 

 tage of both methods of migration, and corresponds approximately 

 to Eimbaud's second division. « White fishes" seems hardly an appropri- 

 ate name : " coast fishes" would perhaps be more expressive. 



Colonel Lyman, in his report " On the Limits of Artificial Culture, and 

 the Possible Exhaustion of Sea-fisheries"* (p. G7), speaks of the first 

 class as " the wandering or schooling fishes of the high seas." The term 

 "schooling" is liable to mislead, for the "white fishes" also school. 

 Among the wandering fishes he mentions only "the M^vvmg {Clupea 

 elongata), mackerel {Scomber vernalis), menhaden {Alosa menhaden), cod 

 {Gadus morrlma)r &c. The cod and herring most certainly are white 

 fishes," and the menhaden and mackerel are certainly not to be ranked 

 with " those which appear on the coast only when ' migrating,' and then 



in vast but uncer tain troops" (p. C3). 



* Report of tbe Commissioners of Fisheriea (of Massachusetts) for the year ending 

 January 1, 1870, pp. 58-G7. 



