COMPARATIVE STUDY OF SCOMBROID FLSHES. 
423 
but becoming more scarce in the northern and southern parts. A few stragglers 
are sometimes found on the coast of Hokkaido. This species entern the Inland 
Sea and bays in the spawning season. It becomes very lean after spawning ; but 
recovers its fattiness already in autumn. In summer and autumn the fish is 
often found near the surface, it leaps out of the water, but in the cold months 
it lives near the bottom. At the flood-tide the fish is more active and is 
said to pursue small fish violently, often tearing drift nets with force. Thus 
fishermen of some villages of Nagasaki-ken are said to use the drift net for 
this fish at the time of the ebb-tide only. 
A fishery expert in Kagawa-ken estimated the number of ova spawned 
from an adult fish in a season to be 550,000—870,000. 
In the migration to the Inland Sea the male fish is more numerous at 
the beginning of the season ; but the female fish predominates near the close of 
the season. At this time the female fish may easily be distinguished from the 
male by the thick and sw r ollen abdomen. 
Caught with troll- or hand-lines, set-nets, drift nets, seines, pound-nets 
etc. Long hues are seldom used, as the fish are not easily induced by dead 
or inactive baits. When empounded in pound nets at night the fish seem to 
try to escape through the meshes at the bottom. 
In the Inland Sea trailers expect good catches within the two houis before 
and after the ebb-tide, especially at dawn. In this sea the fish feeds principal¬ 
ly on the sand-eel. 
A jaw bone of this fish was found in a shell-mound in Cliiba-ken, which 
proves that the prehistoric people in oui- islands also caught this fish. However 
the fishery of this fish seems to have developed very slowly. The name is not 
mentioned in very old literature, such as the “ Yengishiki ” and the “ Man- 
yoshyu ”, though many other common kinds of fish are enumerated. 
Late in November, 1902, a fisherman of Niihama, Yehime-ken, caught 
about fifty adult saw T ara with drift-nets. This untimely catch caused much 
astonishment. Generally adult sawara leave the Inland Sea soon after spawn¬ 
ing, latest at the end of June. 
From a recent inquiry of the Experimental Fishery Station of Kagawa- 
ken, it became clear that this species comes to the Inland Sea again in 
autumn, though not so abundant as in spring. However, it is thought 
