NATURAL HIStOEY OF IMPOETANT FOOD-FISHES. 285 



with rocky bottom, altliougli they may be taken in almost any locality 

 in the region of theii: occnrrence. 



The .scupreuiain along the northern coast nntil abont the middle of 

 October, when the larger ones at least, begin to leave the shores and 

 moves ont into deeper water. Mr. Vinal Edwards has, however, taken 

 yonng tish at Wood's Hole as late as the 10th of December, an(lCa])tain 

 John Rogers, of Noank, states that, in fishing for cod on Nantncket Shoals 

 late in November, their stomachs are occasionally Idled with snuill scnp, 

 Avhich drop out of their months when hauled on deck, found to be to .the 

 extent of five or six at a time. It is quite possible that they, as well a.s 

 other fish, seek in winter that portion of the Gulf Stream that corre- 

 sponds in temperature to that of their summer abode; and as the mean 

 summer temperature of the waters of Southern Massachusetts and Rhode 

 Island amounts to abont (33° Fahrenheit, they must go nearly to the 

 latitude of Norfolk, Virginia, before they can tinil that same tempera- 

 ture in the winter season. 



Tlie European analogue of our American scnp or porgy is the P^r/rMS 

 'vulgaris, the braize or becker, sometimes bream, of the fishermen. Tiiese 

 come on to the European coast in the summer time, and are said to 

 have much the same habits as the American species. 



II.— THE BLUE-FISH. 



Pomatomus mltatrix, (Linn.,) Gill. 



Common names : Blue-fisli ; horse-mackerel; skip-jack ; snap-unackcrel ; green-fish; 

 white-fish. 



Among the various species of marine fishes belonging to the eastern 

 coast of the United States there is no one more conspicuous, wherever 

 found, than the blue-fish. This prominence is due not alone to its value 

 as an article of food, and to the sport which it furnishes to its captors, 

 but it has a very important bearing upon the condition of our coast- 

 fishes generally, and one worthy, perhaps, of much more attention than 

 it has hitherto received. 



The blue-fish, like most of our other fishes, has received a great va- 

 riety of names. From New York northward the adults generally bear 

 the name of blue-fish, except at Newport, where as on part of the Jersey 

 coast, it is called horse-mackerel. It is the skip-jack of South Carolina, 

 the green-fish of Virginia, and the tailor of Maryland, «&c. They oung 

 bear the name of skip-mackerel about New York, and white-fish higher 

 np the Hudson River. 



Its geographical distribution, if we may rely upon the accounts ot 

 writers, is very extensive. Prince Maximilian gives it as found on the 

 coast of Brazil and Schomburg or British Guana; Webb and Berthelot 

 record it at the Canaries ; and others mention it as found in the Mediterra- 

 nean Sea, oft' Madagascar, about Amboyna, and on the shores of Ne\v: 

 Holland.^ Professor Poey, however, has not met with it in the vicinity 

 of Cuba, and I find no positive evidence of its occurrence in the West 

 Indies. On our own coastit is known from Georgia, and probably Florida, 

 as far north as New Hampshire and Maine, although it appears to diminish 

 in numbers to the north of Cape Ann. I have been unable to detect 



1 Castlenau, (Proceedings of the Zoological and Acclimatisation Society of Victoria, 

 I, 1872, p. 118,) says it is one of the most common market tish in Melbourne, where it 

 is generally of small size, although he has seen a specimen 30 inches long. He adds, 

 that at the Cape of Good Hope, it is very common and of large dimensions. Guicheuot 

 says it is abundant and esteemed at Algiers. 



