HISTORY OF THE AMKIHCAN MENHADEN. 95 



18.— AlJUNDANCE IN TUE FUTURE. 



The prohahility of future decrease. 



118. There is no evidence of a decrease in tbe abundance of menliaden 

 during a period of fifteen or more years of fisheries conducted on an im- 

 mense scale. It seems, therefore, that no one cnn reasonably predict a 

 decrease iu the future. The movements of marine fishes are capricious 

 in the extreme. The only cases in which the fisheries have been clearly 

 shown to exercise a pernicious effect is where the spawning fish are taken 

 in great quantities. It has been clearly determined that the menhaden 

 are never captured upou their spawning-beds. 



r.—FOOD. 



19. — Food of the menhaden. 



TJie opinions of fishermen. 



119. Fishermen generally say that the menhaden feed on "brit" and 

 " seed," " red-seed," " cayenne," or " bouj^-fish feed." These are sailors^ 

 names for small floating animals of any kind, such as the minute Crus- 

 tacea, mostly eutomostracans {ostracoda and copeopoda), which swarm 

 the surface of the North Atlantic and are the favorite food of mackerel, 

 herring, and many smaller species. They describe this food as " some- 

 thing of a red or green color and about the size of hay-seed," and very 

 naturally suppose the menhaden to be feeding upou it when they are 

 swimming with their heads at the surface. Others think that they "live 

 by suction," meaning that they feed by drawing through the moutb 

 water coDtainiug particles of organic matter. The sturgeons, pipe-fish^ 

 and cyprinidae, all with toothless mouths, are supposed to have this 

 habit. Others say that they feed upon the jelly-fishes (acalephcc),* upon 

 the "mossy substance" which clings to the eel-grass {Zosiera marina)^ 

 and upon the " scum " or " mucus" which floats on the surface. Perhaps 

 all are right, for most fishes relish changes of diet. At Greenport, N. Y., 

 according to Mr. W. S. Havens, the slimy coating of the eel-grass (which 

 is composed of small algce, Spyridia fdamentosa, with various species of 

 Polysiijhonia'" and Ceramium, &c., often clogged with a soft, slimy de- 

 posit) is known as "bunker-feed." 



, Peculiar movements of the menhaden. 



120. Captain Loring has seen the menhaden in Proviucetown Harbor 

 in groups of from 20 to 500 gathered among the eel grass in shoal water, 

 swimming around and around in circles. He supposed them to be spawn- 

 ing, but it seems quite probable that they were feeding. Mr. Hauce 

 Lav.sou states that in Chesapeake Bay tbe schools break r,,) into small 



* Aoak'pliit do not Lave the appearauce of beiuj^ iimiiticiis too(i. but the lattest hogs 

 I have seeu in Florida are those at Mayport, which greedily devour a large species of 

 discopliore which is cast, o:i the beach ia ^reat. (i!iatiliti(>s. 



