MOVEMENTS OF YOUNG^ BLUEFISH. 441 



suitable period after spawning, the young, in obedience to their migratory instinct, may move 

 northward along the coast, growing rapidly as they proceed. This explains the almost sudden 

 appearance of fish of five inches about Wood's HoU. 



"We have the statement of Dr. Yarrow that vast schools of small Bluefish were met with in 

 Beaufort Harbor during the last week in December, 1871. These were in company with small 

 schools of young menhaden and yellow-tail shad, and were apparently working their way toward 

 the sea by the route of the inlet. When observed, they were coming from the southward through 

 the sound, moving very slowly, at times nearly leaving it, and then returning. The largest were 

 about four inches in length, and others were much smaller; and as many as twenty schools were 

 observed from the wharf at Fort Macon, each of them occupying an area of from sixty to eighty 

 feet square, and apparently from four to six feet in depth. I would not be much surprised if these 

 fish should prove to have been spawned late in the year off the southern coast." 



Diligent research by numerous inquirers during a period of ten years has failed to add any- 

 thing of importance to what Professor Baird has already stated iu the paragraph above quoted, 

 and it may be regarded as almost certain that Bluefish do not spawn in our inshore waters. The 

 only important contribution to our knowledge on this subject is found in the notes of Mr. Silas 

 Stearns, w^o believes that he has abundant evidence of their spawning in the Gulf of Mexico. 

 His remfirks are quoted in full below. The Hon. Eobert B. Eoosevelt records that ho observed 

 the bluefish fry less than an inch in length in the inlet of Far Eockaway, New York, on the 10th 

 of July. 



Size. — "The size varies considerably with season and locality, those spending the summer 

 on the southern coast, according to good authority, rarely exceeding two or three pounds in 

 weight, and being generally considerably less. The largest summer specimens are those found 

 farther to the eastward, where they are not unfrequently met with weighing from ten to fifteen 

 pounds, although this latter weight is quite unusual. Mr. Snow, however (page 44), mentions 

 having seen one of twenty-two pounds, and others give as their maximum from fourteen to 

 twenty. The average size of the schools in Vineyard Sound, during the early season, is from five 

 to seven pounds. The schools, however, that make their appearance in October embrace many 

 individuals of from ten to fifteen pounds. It is, therefore, not improbable that the difference 

 between the first-mentioned average and the last represents the increase by their summer feeding. 

 As already remarked, Bluefish in the last century sometimes attained a weight of forty or fifty 

 pounds in Vineyard Sound; according to Zaccheus Macy, thirty of them would fill a barrel." 



"Forest and Stream," June 25, 1874, states that L. Hathaway, esq., a veteran fisherman, while 

 fishing from the bridge at Oohasset Narrows, Massachusetts, with rod and reel, captured a Blue- 

 fish weighing twenty-five pounds. The largest previously caught weighed seventeen pounds. 



" On getting back to the Carolina coast in the early part of November, according to Dr. Yar- 

 row's statement, they are from three to five feet in length and weigh from ten to twenty pounds. 

 What becomes of these large fish, that so few of them are seen in the early spring, it is impossible 

 to say. If it be really true that they are much scarcer than in the fall, we may infer that their 

 increased size makes them a more ready prey to the larger fish and cetaceans, or that they have 

 accomplished their ordinary period of life ; possibly that they have broken up into smaller parties, 

 less conspicuous to observation, or that they have materially changed their locality. The average 

 length of the fish that appear in the spring off the coast of Virginia and the southern part of New 

 Jersey, according to Dr. Coues, Dr. Yarrow, and my own observations, is about one foot, being 

 probably about one year old. As a general rule, those of the smaller size keep close to the shore 

 and can always be met with, while the larger ones go in schools and remain farther outside. 



