[5] THE SPANISH MACKEREL. 399 
that stray individuals have been found on the coast of Maine.* Narra- 
gansett Bay is, however, the most northern point where they occur in 
sufficient numbers to warrant a special fishery. Farther south, espec- 
ially off Sandy Hook, N. J., they are more abundant. They enter Chesa- 
peake Bay in great numbers, and quantities of them are secured by the 
fishermen. According to Mr. Thaddeus Norris, they occur in consid- 
erable numbers in the Gulf of Mexico, and are quite abundant along 
the Florida cgast; many being shipped from Cedar Keys to Savannah 
and other Southern cities. 
4.—_ MOVEMENTS. 
Spanish mackerel are gregarious in their habits. They are some- 
times seen in enormous schools, covering several square miles of ocean 
surface. A single school seen off Long Island a few years ago was 
a to contain several million individuals. The density of these 
schools, however, is very different from that of the schools of men- 
haden, on which they feed. The latter are usually found in compact 
masses, often many feet in thickness; while the former are considerably 
scattered, a large percentage of them being at or near the surface of 
the water. 
The fish make annual excursions to the coast of the United States in 
summer; starting from their home in the warmer waters of the South, 
or, perhaps, from the deeper waters along the inner edge of the Gulf 
Stream, in the early spring, and proceeding northward, or landward, 
as the season advances. After remaining for a few weeks, or months 
at most, they again move southward, or seaward, and at the approach 
of cold weather entirely disappear. They seem to prefer water ranging 
from 70° to 80° Fahr., and seldom enter that which is colder than 659, 
Off Charleston, 8. C., the fish are first seen about the last of March, 
and late in April they enter the sounds of the North Carolina coast. 
By the 20th of May the vanguard reaches the Chesapeake, and others 
follow in rapid succession, so that by the middle of June the capture 
of mackerel constitutes the principal occupation of the fishermen. Off 
Sandy Hook they are seldom seen till late in July,t though from that 
time they continually increase in numbers till the middle, or even the 
last, of August. Their time of arrival at Narragansett Bay is about 
the same as that for the New Jersey coast. In this northern region 
they remain till the middle of September, after which the number grad- 
*The Canadian fishery report for 1880 contains the following notice of the capture 
of aSpanish mackerel at Prince Edward’s Island, in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, which 
(if there is no mistake in the identification) extends by several hundred miles therange 
of the species. The report says: ‘‘An undoubted specimen of the Spanish mackerel, 
male, Cybium maculatum, of the United States, was caught by hook at New London, 
Queen’s County, on the 7th of September. It is rare to find this fish in so high a 
latitude.”— (Supplement No. 2 to the Eleventh Annual Report of the Minister of Ma- 
rine and Fisheries for the year 1880, p. 229.) 
t Mr. Scott states that the young of the species are sometimes taken off the Long 
Island coast in June. 
