USES OF THE SPANISH MACKEEEL. 313 



richer and softer. The fish bring a high price in the New York market, where it has been but 

 recently sold at from fifty cents to one dollar a pound, the prices varying with the season. It has 

 been more abundant oft" our coast than ever before, and in the lower part of the Potomac numbers 

 have been taken and salted down. They may frequently be found in this state in the Washington 

 market, and readily recognized by the round yellow spots on the sides, and also by the size, which 

 is so much larger than that of the common Mackerel." 



DeBIay, in 1842, mentioned that he had seen this species, taken in the seine, in the New York 

 market, in August and September, nearly two feet long, but that they were not common. 



Ebpeodution. — The breeding habits of this fish were never understood until the spring of 

 1880, when, to everybody's astonishment, it was found by Mr. Earll that one of the principal 

 spawning grounds was in the Chesapeake Bay. 



I quote in full the remarks of Mr. Earll upon their reproductive habits : 



" Prior to 1880, nothing was definitely known regarding the spawning habits of the Spanish 

 Mackerel. Neither the time nor place of spawning had been discovered. Mr. Scott had surmised 

 that they spawned in the watersof our Atlantic States in the spring, as small ones which he sup- 

 posed to be the young of the previous year were occasionally seen in June.^ Professor Goode, in 

 , his 'Game Fishes,' had ventured the assertion that they probably spawned in midwinter, in the 

 \ Gulf of Mexico and about the "West Indies. These were, as far as we know, the only writers that 

 \had referred to the spawning habits of the Mackerel. During an extended tour of the Atlantic 

 coast, in company with Col. Marshall McDonald, the writer had an excellent opportunity for exam- 

 Wing the species in different localities, and succeeded in proving that the theory advanced by Mr. 

 epott was the more nearly correct, and that the Spanish Mackerel spawn along many portions of 

 tB^ Atlantic coast in midsummer. The investigation of the Southern fisheries began in Florida 

 in January, 1880, and when the fisheries in that region had been sufficiently studied, we proceeded 

 northward, visiting every important fishing station along the coast of Georgia and the Oarolinas, 

 reaching the Chesapeake early in May. After spending some time at Norfolk, and at the fishing 

 shor^ of Capt. W. E. Taylor, at Willoughby, we accepted the invitation of Mr. O. E. Maltby to 

 visit \is fishing station at New Point, forty miles up the bay. Here we spent a number of days 

 in exaiQining the spawning condition of the different species taken in the pound-nets of the locality, 

 and soon discovered that many of the male Mackerel were nearly ripe, while the eggs in the ovaries 

 of some of the females were well developed. A little later we succeeded in finding thoroughly 

 ripe males and one or two females from which ripe eggs could be taken. Appreciating the impor 

 tance of this discovery, we continued our investigation, and soon satisfied ourselves that the 

 spawning time was near at hand, as the eggs and milt in all of the specimens examined were well 

 advanced. Later, the writer visited the Eastern Shore of Virginia, including the counties of 

 Accomack and Northampton, and found ripe eggs and milt in a large number of individuals. 

 Further investigation proved that the spawning season, as in many migratory species, varied with 

 the locality, being earliest on the Southern coast, and latest about Long Island. The temperature 

 of the water seems to have a decided effect upon the spawning time of the Mickerel, and the 

 ovaries and spermaries do not develop very rapidly until it has risen to upwards of 70° Fahrenheit. 

 The time of spawning for the Carolinas begins in April, while the season at Long Island commences 

 by the 20th of August, and continues till the latter part of September. On the arrival of the 

 species in the Chesapeake, in May, a few of the males are nearly ripe, and the ovaries of the females 



'The following is the language of Mr. Scott on this point: "Both the Spanish Mackerel and Cero are spring- 

 spawning fishes, and no doubt spawn in our hays, for there are occasionally small ones ta,ken by the anglers in June, 

 before the large ones Tisit our shores, and I argue, therefore, that the small half-pounders are of last year's hatch." — 

 Angling in American Waters. 



