434 NATURAL HISTORY OF AQUATIC ANIMALS. 



exhaustive account of the habits of the Bluefish which will be quoted from freely in this chapter. 

 The presence of quotation marks will be sufficient to indicate the source of the paragraphs taken 

 from his essay without further reference to his name. 



"MOVEMENTS AND MIGRATIONS. The Bluefish is pre-eminently a pelagic or wandering fish, 

 and like many others, especially of the Scombridai, is apparently capricious in its movements, 

 varying in numbers at particular localities with the year, and sometimes disappearing from certain 

 regions for a large fraction of a century, again to return as before. The cause of this variation it 

 is impossible to explain, being due ill some instances, probably, to the disappearance ot its favorite 

 food in consequence of its own voracity, or for other undetermined reasons. 



"They occur during the summer throughout the entire range indicated for the United States, 

 but are much larger in size and in greatest abundance from the coast of New Jersey northward. 

 From New Jersey southward, in the season mentioned, with the exception of an occasional 

 wandering school, they are generally only about eight to twelve inches in length, representing, 

 therefore, in all probability, individuals of the second year's growth. 



"They appear to have a regular migration along our coast, presenting themselves later and 

 later in the spring, the farther they are found to the north, and disappearing in the inverse order 

 from the same regions in the autumn. First noticed on the Carolina coast as early as March and 

 April, immense schools of them, bound eastward, are seen off the coast of the Middle States from 

 the middle of May to the middle of June, 1 and in October similar bodies, perhaps embracing fewer 

 individuals, pass to the southward. It is possible, however, that in the autumn some schools 

 move well out to sea, and are, therefore, less likely to be observed. They leave the northern coast 

 about the middle of October, and about the middle of November appear in vast numbers off the 

 coast of North Carolina, where, from Nag's Head, in Curritnck County, to Cape Lookout, there is 

 a very extensive fishery prosecuted, which furnishes Bluefish for the Northern markets. It is 

 estimated that at least one hundred and fifty crews are engaged in this fall fishing, which lasts 

 generally until late in December. At this time individuals may be taken weighing fifteen to 

 eighteen pounds, although their average size is about ten. 



"Their occurrence in autumn off the coast of North Carolina is preceded and first indicated 

 by the vast schools of menhaden, which they follow in, several miles from the sea, and by the 

 usual accompaniment of flocks of gulls attending them to take a share in the feast. Of the par- 

 ticular mode of fishing in this neighborhood we shall take occasion to speak hereafter. 



"According to Dr. Yarrow, the Bluefish are first seen in spring on the North Carolina coast 

 (the smaller ones first) in March or April, when, however, they are much less in size than the 

 specimens referred to as occurring in the fall. The precise time of their appearance at most of the 

 points farther north has not yet been ascertained. Whether they actually migrate from south to 

 north, and rice versa, or merely come in from the outer seas in regular order, as is believed to bo the 

 case with the shad, etc., has not been settled, although the former supposition appears the more 

 probable. They reach the New Jersey coast some time in the early part of May, and usually 

 appear at Newport and in Vineyard Sound (the time varying with the season) from the middle of 

 May to the first week in June. They are expected at Edgartown from the 25th to the 30th of May; 

 but I am informed that, on their first arrival, they feed at the bottom, and sometimes for a while 

 are not seen at the surface at all, seldom being taken with the hook, but caught in large numbers 

 in pounds aud with the gill-net, usually along the lower edge of the net. According to Dr. Yarrow, 



*In the Chesapeake, according to Dr. Wilkins, at Hunger's Wharf, Virginia, the Taylor is one of the most 

 abundant fish, as many as four thousand being caught at one lift of the pound. The average size is about three 

 pounds. They come about the first of June and leave early in October. 



