CONTRIBUTIONS TO LIFE HISTORIES OF SCI^NID/E OF 
THE EASTERN UNITED STATES COAST. 
By WILLIAM W. WELSH, Late Scientific Assistant, and C. M. BREDER, Jr., Formerly Fishery Expert, 
U. S. Bureau of Fisheries. 
CONTENTS. 
Page. 
Introduction 141 
General discussion 145 
Key to Scisenidse of Atlantic coast 146 
Glossary of terms used in key 147 
Diagnosis of family 148 
Key to genera and species 148 
Cy noscion regalis 150 
Eggs and development 150 
Embryology 151 
Growth 157 
Age at maturity 158 
Size and weight attained 158 
Movements and seasonal distribution . . . 158 
Food 159 
Cynoscion nebulosus 164 
Cynoscion nothus 169 
Larimus fasciatus 170 
Bairdiella chrysura 171 
Page. 
Stellifer lanceolatus 175 
Leiostomus xanthurus 177 
Micropogon undulatus 180 
Sdsenops ocellatus 184 
Menticirrhus americanus 186 
Menticirrhus saxatilis 190 
Menticirrhus littoralis 195 
Pogonias cromis 196 
Eques acuminatus 197 
Eques pulcher 198 
Eques lanceolatus 198 
Umbrina coroides 198 
Corvula sialis 198 
General remarks on food of Atlantic coast 
Scisenidse 199 
Summary 199 
Bibliography 200 
INTRODUCTION. 
The control of the commercial fisheries of the United States, excluding Alaska, 
rests entirely in the hands of the State governments. All legislation directly affect- 
ing the fisheries is the work of the legislatures of the States within the boundaries of 
which the fisheries are conducted. In this legislation there is the greatest diversity, 
both in scope and character. In many cases the laws enacted have been wise and 
their enforcement beneficial. In other cases the laws have been framed without 
full knowledge of the many factors demanding consideration, and their enforcement 
has brought little or no benefit, sometimes even positive injury, to the very interests 
they were designed to uphold. 
A fundamental prerequisite for intelligent fisheries legislation — legislation that 
will serve the true interests of the fisheries and assist toward the increase and per- 
petuation of the prime sources of supply — is an accurate knowledge of the life 
histories of the species contributing to that supply. Lacking such knowledge, leg- 
islation must be largely a matter of guesswork, based on the varied and often con- 
flicting opinions of interested parties. Such accurate knowledge is by no means 
easy to obtain, however, since it is manifestly impossible to observe directly the 
habits, growth, breeding, and wanderings of individual fish that possess the freedom 
of the sea. 
141 
