SCI.2ENIDA3 OF THE EASTERN UNITED STATES COAST. 
165 
and to the southward in the fall. It is more active, wary, more difficult to surround 
with a net, and more highly prized as food than the squeteague ( Cynoscion regalis). 
Its average weight is given variously as from 2 to 4 pounds; the maximum as 
about 16.5. 
In North Carolina the species is quite abundant, and greater numbers are 
taken from October to May than during the summer months, when because of its 
wariness Beaufort (N. C.) fishermen take most of their fish at night. Some of the 
fishermen state that they can detect the presence of the fish by the sound of the 
flipping of the fins at the surface as it feeds and take advantage of this habit by 
lying in wait on the feeding grounds and then quietly running the seine around the 
fish when their presence is detected. An indication of the wariness of this species 
is shown by the rarity with which it is taken in pound nets. In the pound net of 
the Bureau of Fisheries laboratory at Beaufort, N. C., from June 10 to August 30, 
1912, when large numbers were about, only five examples were taken, while during 
the same period several thousand squeteague ( Cynoscion regalis) were caught. 
As the water cools off in the late fall the fish appear to school up in creeks and 
deeper holes and become less active. In the northern part of its range there is 
evidence of a definite migration in the summer to Delaware Bay. The supposed 
migration in June, July, and August in the southern States may be only a movement 
out of the rivers and bays into the ocean for the purpose of spawning, as is the case 
with Cynoscion regalis. Although the statement has been made that this species 
spawns in bays and sounds in spring and summer, no authentic data to support 
this contention are available. The only young examples on record as being taken 
at Beaufort, N. C., are the three small ones described in the present paper, and the 
scarcity of small fish from this locality and from Chesapeake Bay indicates that they 
were only stragglers. The young, unlike those of C. regalis, have not been taken 
off the mouths of the rivers and inlets on the North Carolina coast. 
So far as known spawning occurs in May and June. The eggs, larvae, and early 
post-larval stages have not been studied, the smallest example yet observed having 
a length of 2.8 cm. (fig. 15). Measurements of the few specimens at hand, taken in 
July (Beaufort, N. C.) and December (Chesapeake Bay), indicate that the growth 
of the young the first year is approximately the same as that of Cynoscion regalis 
for the same age. 
Examination of the scales of 20 fish from Punta Gorda, Fla., the largest of 
which was 55 cm. (2 If inches) long and apparently 8 years old, indicates that 
the estimated average length for the first six years is approximately as follows : 
Estimated average length. 
First winter 11-12 cm. (4£-5 inches). 
Second winter 23 cm. (9 inches). 
Third winter 31 cm. (12f inches). 
Fourth winter 36 cm. (14 inches). 
Fifth winter 40 cm. (15f inches). 
Sixth winter 43 cm. (17 inches). 
The young of Cynoscion nebulosus differ markedly in color and form from the 
adults and from the young of C. regalis. The main differences are in the color 
pattern, the shape of the caudal fin, the general form, the proportionate length of 
