184 LOWER VERTEBRATES. 



Mr. Goode informs us that '• a blue-fish weighing one pound measures about fourteen 

 inches; two pounds, seventeen inches ; three pounds, twenty-one inches; four pounds, 

 twenty-four inches ; five pounds, twenty-six inches, six pounds, twenty-six to twenty, 

 seven inches, and eight pounds, twenty-nine inches." 



The blue-fisli is primarily a pelagic species, but is met with not so much in the higli 

 seas as within comparatively narrow distances of the coast; it is even prone to ascend 

 great rivers, as high as fresh water. It is quite erratic in its movements, being absent 

 in some years where it is abundant in others. Its distribution may, however, be said 

 to be almost coincident with the warmer temperate seas, although there are many un- 

 explained eases of absence. It extends along the entire eastern American coast, far 

 into the northern, as well as into the southern hemisphere, and dwells in the Gulf of 

 Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, in the MediteiTanean, along the coast of South Africa, 

 around Madagascar, in the Malay Ai-chipelago, and in the Australian seas. It has, 

 however, never been observed about Bermuda, and ajijiears never to have ascended 

 along the European coasts to the isothermal equivalents of the American seas where 

 it abounds. No specimens have ever been recorded to have been obtained in Great 

 Britain. In the words of Mr. Goode, " it is not yet known what limits of temperature 

 are the most favorable to their welfare, but it would appear from the study of the 

 dates of their appearance during a period of years in connection with the ocean tem- 

 perature, that they prefer to avoid water which is much colder than 40 degrees," and 

 "their favoi-ite summer haunts are in the jjartially jirotected waters of the middle 

 states, from May to October, with an average temperature of 60 to 75 degi-ees." As a 

 rule, where one is found, many may be, for it is a gregarious fish and many associate 

 together forming large schools. 



The blue-fish, it is asserted, makes a regular migration along our coast, presenting 

 themselves later and later in the spring the faither they are found to the north, and 

 disappearing in the inverse order from tlie same regions in the autumn. They are 

 first noticed on " the Carolina coast as early as March and j\pril, immense schools of 

 them, bound eastward, are seen off the coast of the Middle States, from the middle 

 of May to the middle of June, and in October similar bodies, perhaps embracing fewer 

 individuals, pass to the southward. It is possible, however, that in the autumn some 

 schools move well out to sea, and are therefore less likely to be observed. They leave 

 the northern coast about the middle of October, and about the middle of November 

 appear in vast numbers off the coast of North Carolina," whei-e a very extensive fish- 

 ery is prosecuted chiefly for the northern markets. 



Few fishes — pei-haps we almost might say none — are more rajiacious and san- 

 guinary than the blue-fish. The United States Commissioner of Fisheries has espe- 

 cially deplored the ravages it commits upon other members of the finny class, and 

 the contemplation of its bloody career has provoked him to eloquent denunciation. 

 " There is," he says, " no parallel in point of destructiveness to the blue-fish among the 

 marine species on our coast, whatever may be the case among some of the carnivorous 

 fish of the South American waters. The blue-fish has been well likened to an anima- 

 ted choi)ping-machine, the business of which is to cut to pieces and otherwise destroy 

 as many fish as possible in a given space of time. All writers are unanimous in 

 regard to the destructiveness of the blue-fish. Going in large schools, in pursuit of 

 fish not much inferior to themselves in size, they move along like a pack of hungry 

 wolves, destroying evei-ything before them. Tiieir trail is marked by fragments of 

 fiah and by the stain of blood in the sea, as, where the fish is too large to be swallowed 



