LOVES FLYING-FISH, LAUGHS AT TROLLS. 133 



either. The numbers of this fish annually taken about the 

 approaches to our harbors with the troll and in nets increase, 

 so that it bids fair to become nearly as numerous as the blue- 

 fish. Of the shoals which venture along the shores of beaches 

 or breakwaters, the fish range in weight from five to fifteen 

 pounds, while farther south they are said to attain to the 

 weight of nearly a hundred. 



The menhaden of our shores form the leading attraction to 

 the food-fishes of the troll, and they are so prolific that, if they 

 can be protected against oily speculators, there will be no 

 danger of our losing entirely any of the large food-fishes of 

 the coast. 



. The bonetta is very beautiful, having a dark greenish-blue 

 back, which lightens to midsides, and terminates in a satiny 

 white belly. The diagonal rays are nearly black, and extend 

 a little below the sinuous lateral line. The first dorsal is 

 spinous, as are the first rays of the second dorsal and pecto- 

 ral. The tail is framed by two spinous rays, and never closes. 

 The anal fin is also rigid. There is an adipose fin about three 

 inches long from the tail up the lateral line, as on the Spanish 

 mackerel and cero. The mouth is armed with teeth both 

 strong and sharp. The tufts of fins from the second dorsal 

 and anal to the tail add to its superior means of propulsion, 

 and its shape, being perfectly adapted to cleaving the waters, 

 prove it to be one of the swiftest fishes of the soundings and 

 harbor approaches. Its scales are so small as not to be seen 

 without the aid of glasses. It is usually taken on a large 

 metal squid in trolling for bluefish, and very few have been 

 caught in fykes and pounds. It is a very voracious fish, and 

 generally in good condition and very gamy. It spawns about 

 June in our bays, but probably earlier in the season farther 

 south. While angling in company with Alderman Dodge, 

 last year, in Jamaica Bay, he took one which weighed less 

 than a pound, on shedder-crab bait ; it was one of a shoal 

 hatched the year previous. Some fishing naturalists state 

 that it spawns about the islands of the Western Archipelago, 



