124 
AMERICAN FISHES 
the estimation in which it is held by New York epicures, as it is certainly 
savory when taken fresh from the water,’ leaves nothing to be desired in 
the way of a fish diet. It is quite abundant off the Middle States, but is 
rare much to the eastward. A few specimens are occasionally taken in 
Buzzard’s Bay and Vineyard Sound, and Dr. Storer mentions four as hav¬ 
ing been captured in Massachusetts Bay. It is almost as capricious in its 
occurrence in the more northern waters as the Lafayette, sometimes being 
scarcely met with for several successive summers, and then suddenly reap¬ 
pearing, as if migrating from more southern waters. At Beesley’s Point, 
N. J., where I have had most opportunity of studying its habits, it 
appears quite early in the spring with the squeteague, and is found a good 
deal in company with it, like that fish seeming to prefer a slight mixture 
of fresh water, as shown by its keeping in the mouths of rivers and run¬ 
ning farther up during the dry season. It takes bait readily and affords 
excellent sport to the fishermen, although not caught in anything like the 
same number in a given time as the squeteague, thirty or forty at a single 
tide being considered an excellent catch for one boat. 
“ Nothing has been recorded in regard to the precise time of their 
spawning or the places where they lay their eggs. The young are met 
with at Beesley’s Point in immense numbers on the sandy bottom as well 
as in the surf. The smallest were about an inch long. I have taken the 
young also in considerable number in Vineyard Sound at a time when the 
old fish were scarcely known. They occasionally run to a considerable 
distance up the rivers, as I have caught young fish of this species at Sing 
Sing, on the Hudson, where the water is scarcely brackish. The King- 
fish run much in schools, and keep on or near a hard, sandy bottom, pre¬ 
ferring the edge of channels and the vicinity of sand bars; and they con¬ 
gregate about oyster-beds, especially when the oysters are being taken up, 
and may be seen under the boats, fighting for the worms and crustaceans 
dislodged in the operation. They bite readily at hard or soft clams, or 
even pieces of fish, and are taken most successfully on the young flood. 
Like the squeteague, they will occasionly run up the salt creeks at night, 
and may be captured in gill-nets as the water recedes. This, however, is 
not so common a habit with them as it is with its associate. 
“ The price of this fish varies at different seasons of the year, but it is 
always well maintained, and it is generally valued at nearly as high a fig¬ 
ure as the Spanish mackerel. The European analogue of this species, Um- 
