66 NATURE'S CALENDAR 



April 12 to be the principal consideration, and 



each kind of fish seems to have its own 

 ideas of what is right in this respect. 

 It appears as though the oceanic fishes, 

 like the birds, come up the coast as the 

 season advances, and to some extent this 

 is true; but it is believed that for the 

 most part they retreat straight off the 

 coast to deep water in the fall, and return 

 in the spring from wanderings, the ex- 

 tent and depth of which we have no 

 means of knowing. It seems sure that 

 the fishes bred in certain streams return 

 to that very stream the next spring, and 

 year by year afterwards as long as they 

 live ; and this habit is far more mysterious 

 than anything in the migration of birds. 

 The probability is that they do not go 

 very far away from shore. 



By the ist of April good sea- fishing 

 has begun along the southern coasts, and 

 by the end of the month it is at hand 

 farther north. The surf whiting, or tom- 

 cod, may be caught in the Carolina surf, 

 and sheepshead are plentiful in the har- 

 bors. Redfish are swimming lazily about 

 the southern sounds and bayous in search 

 of food, or are sunning themseh^es in the 

 shallows. The Spanish mackerel are al- 

 ready breeding among the Sea Islands, 

 where the cotton grows. The menhaden 

 are playing along the surface of the sea 

 off the Virginia capes, and will soon start 

 the New Jersey and Long Island fisher- 

 men at manning their seine-boats. Tautog 



