458 
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 
they can be taken at any depth (ranging down to 20 fathoms) within the area in 
which the recent townet collections were made. Evermann and Marsh (1902, p. 
129) report the capture with a beam trawl of six young, about 2 inches in length, 
from near Porto Rico in 220 fathoms of water. It is quite certain from this record 
and the results of the present investigation that the young scad, at least, is not 
wholly pelagic. 
It is pointed out on a preceding page (p. 453) that the young were secured from 
May to December. However, only a few were taken in May and June, many in 
July, August, and September, a few in October, and only a couple of stragglers in 
November and December. It is evident, therefore, that the fish leave the shore 
waters upon the approach of cold weather. This exodus from the shallower shore 
waters was expected, because the scad is principally a tropical species. It is not 
known, however, whether the fish hatched in the local shore waters during the 
summer migrate southward or whether they merely move offshore and possibly 
into the Gulf Stream. 
The rate of growth can not be determined from the present collection. The 
largest specimens are only about 50 millimeters long and were taken in September 
and October. It is probable that these fish are representative of the largest young 
of the O class and that a length of 50 millimeters (2 inches), or so, is attained 
at an age of 4 or 5 months. The food and feeding habits remain largely undeter- 
mined. Beebe and Tee-Van (1928, p. 105) list copepods, numerous zoea, and 
ostracods for a fish 95 millimeters long. The stomach contents of the small fish in 
the present collection have not been studied. 
SERIOLA DUMERILI (Risso). Amberfish; rudderfish 
The amberfish, as here understood, 4 inhabits both coasts of the Atlantic, and 
on the American coast it ranges from Massachusetts to Brazil. It does not occur 
regularly in the vicinity of Beaufort and has no commercial value there. In 1915, 
for example, from 2 to 10 individuals, all of nearly uniform size (about 13 inches in 
length), were taken daily from May 17 to 29, in a pound net operated by the Beaufort 
fisheries station. These fish were shown to several local fishermen, who did not 
recognize the fish and could not remember that they had previously seen a fish that 
looked like it. 
Smith (1907, p. 203) says, “A number of years ago, some New Jersey fishermen 
set pound nets off the beach near Nags Head and for some time caught numbers 
of fine, large amberfish, and 20 boxes of the fish were sent to market from Skyco, 
Roanoke Island. The steamer Fish Hawk caught a specimen about 28 miles off 
Cape Lookout, August 21, 1902.” We have at hand two specimens, each about 
15 inches long, taken with hook and line on the blac-kfish grounds, about 20 miles off 
Beaufort Inlet, by the Fish Hawk in 1913. 
A considerable number of young amberfish, ranging from about 10 to 50 milli- 
meters in length, were collected by the Fish Hawk in 1914 off Beaufort Inlet and 
principally on the blackfish grounds. This vessel collected in the same vicinity in 
1913 and again in 1915, but no amberfish was taken those two years. Smaller fry 
were secured near Beaufort Inlet (once inside and several times outside of the inlet) 
in 1927. Although the towing operations of 1927 were repeated in the same locality 
1 Nearly all the specimens taken locally that are large enough to be pigmented belong to the barred form, S. zonata (Mitchill). 
H owever, after considerable study devoted to the genus some years ago, it was concluded that zonata are yo .ng dumerili and are 
so considered here. 
