292 NATURAL HISTOEY OF AQUATIC ANIMALS. 



practice is to allow the fish to lie in the net until they have disposed of the food in their stomachs. 

 Capt. Henry Willard, of the schooner " Henry Willard," of Portland, Maine, carries a large net of 

 coarse twine, which is suspended over the side of the vessel from two long booms. Into this he 

 turns the fish and leaves them until the seed works out. 1 



Gaptain Mar states that the " red-seed" is very troublesome to the men engaged in dressing 

 the fish; it makes their hands very sore, often causing the blood to run. A man can clean twice 

 as many fish in a given time if he is not annoyed by the "red-seed" in their stomachs. 



Captain Mar describes another kind of mackerel food, which he calls " small brit," which, he 

 says, resembles young herring, which also rots the fish. This is probably, as he supposes it to be, 

 ' white-bait" in the young of the sea herring, Olupea harengus. It is known as " eye-bait" to the 

 Canadian fishermen. 



Captain Merchant tells me that when Mackerel are fotfnd with "red-seed" in their stomachs 

 fishermen are sure that they are on the right fishing grounds. 



I am told by Captain Collins that it is common for many of the American fishermen to con- 

 sider it a good sign of Mackerel when they see floating seaweed, more especially eel- grass, " chopped 

 up," i. e., cut into short pieces, which they think is done by these fish. Perhaps there may be a 

 good reason for this supposition, as the Mackerel, while feeding on the diminutive shells with 

 which the weeds are covered, may also bite the latter in two. The presence of gannets is also 

 considered a good sign of Mackerel. 



In England the food of the Mackerel is called the " mackerel mint," and this is said to consist 

 at certain seasons of the year of the sand-lants and five other fish, especially the herring and the 

 sprat, while they have also been observed to devour, in the summer months, minute crustaceans, 

 the swimming larva of tape- worms, and the embryos of the small spiral shell Rissoa, which, iuits 

 adult state, is found in great abundance upon seaweed. It is probably some animal of this kind 

 which was referred to by Captain Harding in the statement above quoted, concerning the abun- 

 dance of red-seed about Boone Island. Mr. J. F. Whiteaves has recorded a similar habit for the 

 Mackerel of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence.* 



Professor Hind has pointed out certain relations which exist in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence 

 between the Mackerel and the lant, or sand-eel, which appears to be one of its most important 

 articles of diet in these waters. I quote here in full his observations upon this subject, and also 

 his views upon the relations of currents and tides to the presence of mackerel food, and the con- 

 stant movements of the schools of fish : 



"The movements of the Mackerel, like those of the cod, and indeed of most species of fish, are 

 determined at different seasons of the year by the geographical position of its food; and the first 

 important kind of food which appears to lure the Mackerel inshore, after spawning in the Gulf of 

 Saint Lawrence, is the lannce or sand-eel. 



"The relation of the launce or sand-eel (Ammodytes americanus) to the Mackerel is very much 

 greater than appears at the first blush, and resembles the relation of the herring to the cod in 

 general, and in particular the relation of the so-called Norwegian 'Sull cod,' or lauuce cod, to this 

 wide-spread and important bait-fish. The approach of the launce to the coast in spring is most 

 probably the cause why the so-called spring cod fishing suddenly ceases on rnauy banks and shoals, 

 commencing again at different localities two and three weeks later. 



"The cod leaves the banks and shoals to meet and to follow the launce as they approach the 



"This "large net of coarse twine" is the mackerel pocket described in the chapter on THE PURSE-SKINE 

 MACKEREL FISHERY. 



* Report on the Second Deep-sea Dredging Expedition of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, 1872. 



