190 AMERICAN FISHES. 
Hook and Chesapeake regions, but also on the southern shore of Long 
Island, and in the sounds of the Carolinas. 
In the Carolinas, he tells us, the spawning season begins in April; in 
the Chesapeake region from the first to the middle of June; in the Sandy 
Hook region and about Long Island, from the latter part of August to the 
first of September. In the Gulf, according to Stearns, the season is in 
July. The season continues in any given locality from six to ten weeks, 
and the spawners, contrary to what occurs in shad, salmon and white-fish, 
require several weeks rather than a few days only to deposit their indi- 
vidual quota of eggs. A one pound Spanish Mackerel] will yield about 
300,000 eggs, a six pounder scarcely less than 1,500,000; the species 
being much more prolific than salmon, shad or white-fish, though less so 
than the members of the cod family. The eggs are minute, from yy to gy 
of an inch in diameter, and over a million can be held within the walls of 
a quart measure. Their specific gravity is such that they will sink in fresh 
water and float in the sea. 
When first hatched, the embryo is very small, and the length scarcely 
exceeds one-tenth of an inch, while its diameter, even with the compar- 
atively large yelk-sac, is so small as to allow it to pass through wire-cloth 
having thirty-two wires to the inch. For several hours it remains quiet 
at the surface in an almost helpless condition, a small oil globule in the 
yelk-sac causing it to lie belly uppermost. Later the sac is absorbed, and 
the little fish manifests greater activity, and by vigorous and spasmodic 
efforts swims to the depth of an inch or so below the surface. In a few 
hours it finds no difficulty in swimming at various depths, and begins to 
lie upon the bottom of the vessel, darting off with surprising rapidity when 
disturbed. 
The rate of growth has not been studied. Earll supposed that the 
yearling fish are not more than six inches long, and those of two years to 
be the young fish of a half-pound weight, observed by Genio C. Scott in 
the Long Island region. It is scarcely probable that the species attains 
full size in less than four years. The annual growth of so voracious a 
species is doubtless considerable after the first two years. The species 
sometimes attains the weight of eight or nine pounds, though it rarely 
exceeds three or four pounds. A specimen taken off Block Island, July 8, 
1874, the first of the season, measured twenty-six and one-fourth inches 
and weighed three pounds and five ounces. It is said to be the largest 
