376 NATURAL HISTORY OP AQUATIC ANIMALS. 



" This species, well worthy of the name which has been given it, and the estimation in which 

 it is held by New York epicures, as it is certainly savory when taken fresh from the water, leaves 

 nothing to be desired in the way of a fish diet. It is quite abundant off the Middle States, but 

 is rare much to the eastward. A few specimens are occasionally taken in Buzzard's Bay and 

 Vineyard Sound, and Dr. Storer mentions four as having been captured in Massachusetts Bay. 

 It is almost as capricious in its occurrence in the more northern waters as the Lafayette, sometimes 

 being scarcely met with for several successive summers, and then suddenly reappearing, as if 

 migrating from more southern waters. At Beasley's Point, New Jersey, where I have had most 

 opportunity of studying its habits, it appears quite early in the spring with the Squeteague, and 

 is found a good deal in company with it, like that fish seeming to prefer a slight mixture of fresh 

 water, as shown by its keeping in the mouths of rivers and running farther up during the dry 

 season. It takes bait readily and affords excellent sport to the fishermen, although not caught in 

 anything like the same number in a given time as the Squeteague, thirty or forty at a single tide 

 being considered an excellent catch for one boat. 



" Nothing has been recorded in regard to the precise time of their spawning or the places 

 where they lay their eggs. The young were met with at Beasley's Point in immense numbers on 

 the sandy bottom as well as in the surf. The smallest were about an inch long. I have taken 

 the young also in considerable number in Vineyard Sound at a time when the old fish were 

 scarcely known. They occasionally run to a considerable distance up the rivers, as I have caught 

 young fish of this species at Sing Sing, on the Hudson, where the water is scarcely brackish. 

 The King-fish run much in schools, and keep on or near a hard, sandy bottom, preferring the edge 

 of channels and the vicinity of sand bars ; and they congregate about oyster-beds, especially when 

 the oysters are being taken up, and may be seen under the boats, fighting for the worms and 

 crustaceans dislodged in the operation. They bite readily at hard or soft clams, or even pieces of 

 fish, and are taken most successfully on the young flood. Like the Squeteague, they will occasion- 

 ally run up the salt creeks at night, and may be captured in gill-nets as the water recedes. This, 

 however, is not so common a habit with them as it is with its associate. 



" The price of this fish varies at different seasons of the year, but it is always well maintained, 

 and it is generally valued at nearly as high a figure as the Spanish mackerel. The European 

 analogue of this species ( Umbrina cirrJwsa) is somewhat similar in general appearance, and its 

 flesh is highly esteemed. This feeds on small fishes, mollusks, and, according to Yarrow, on sea- 

 weed, sometimes obtaining a weight of forty pounds. This magnitude I have not seen approxi- 

 mated by our species, although it is possible that it may occasionally reach a large size. Of its 

 distribution southward I can find no satisfactory account." 



In 1879 numerous small individuals of this species appeared in the harbor of Provincetown, 

 Massachusetts^ they seemed, however, to be out of their proper habitat, and many were chilled by 

 the coldness of the water and cast up on the beach. In 1880 and 1881, the species is said to have 

 been particularly abundant on the coast of New Jersey, and to have afforded much sport to anglers 

 of that vicinity, many of whom had not been familiar with it in previous years. 



125. THE WHITINGS— MENTICIRRUS ALBURNUS AND M. LITTORALIS. 



The Whiting, one of the favorite food-fishes of the Southern coast, is a species very closely 

 allied in its general character to the King-fish of more northern waters. It is said to occur abun- 

 dantly from Cape Pear River, North Carolina, to the Rio Grande, in Texas. Uhler and Lugger claim 

 that it inhabits the salt water of the Chesapeake Bay and its estuaries, but it is not probable that 

 it is at all abundant. On the coast of South Carolina, according to Dr. Holbrook, " the Whiting 



