FISHES OF NEW YORK 383 



placed nearly opposite to them. The middle caudal rays are 

 very short; the external rays are as long as the snout and eye 

 combined. The ventral origin is equally distant from tip of 

 snout and vent; the fin is two fifths as long as the head. The 

 pectoral is one half as long as the head and reaches to below 

 the fifth spine of the first dorsal. Air bladder present. D. IX 

 to X-I, 11 to 12-V; A. I-I, 11-V or VI; V. I, 5; P. I, 19. Scales 

 nearly 200. 



Colors essentially the same as in Scomber scombrus, 

 the wavy transverse bands about 30 in number; sides mottled 

 with small dusky blotches below the median line; about 20 black 

 specks on base of preopercle, usually arranged in more than one 

 series; belly and sides silvery; a black blotch in axil of pectoral. 



The chub mackerel is found in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, 

 north to England and Maine and to San Francisco; very com- 

 mon in the Mediterranean and in southern California; some- 

 times abundant on our eastern coast and frequently absent for 

 long periods. It reaches the length of 14 inches and is an im- 

 portant food fish. 



July 25, 1887, the schooner Peter Cooper caught 6000 thimble- 

 eye mackerel off Manasquan N. J. About 50,000 mackerel were 

 taken by the menhaden steamer, A. Morris, near Ocean City, July 

 19, 1887. Some of these were preserved in brine by W. B. Steel- 

 man, and I found them to be S. c o 1 i a s. 



The thimbleeyes usually arrive in August. In 1886 they were 

 often caught. This species was not found in large numbers in 

 Gravesend bay in 1897, but in 1896 it abounded in all the little 

 creeks, and in some instances the fish could be dipped up by the 

 boat load with scoop nets. The fish reached 10 inches in 

 length before the end of the summer. 



Genus AVXIS Cuvier 



Body oblong, plump, mostly naked posteriorly, anteriorly cov- 

 ered with small scales, those of the pectoral region enlarged, 

 forming a corselet; snout very short, conical, scarcely com- 

 pressed; mouth rather small, the jaws equal; teeth very small, 

 mostly in a single series, on the jaws only; tail very slender, 



