T 5 8 
AMERICAN FISHES. 
1850 to i860. The testimony elicited from various observers, as well as 
from printed records, indicates a decrease since that period much greater 
in some localities than others. About New York they are said to have 
been unusually plenty in the summer of 1871, but farther east the diminu¬ 
tion which had been observed in previous years appeared to continue. 
Diligent research by numerous inquirers during a period of sixteen years 
has added little to what Prof. Baird has stated and it may be regarded 
as almost certain that Bluefish do not spawn in our inshore waters. The 
only important contribution to our knowledge on this subject is found in 
the notes of Mr. Silas Stearns, who believes that he has abundant evidence 
of their spawning in the Gulf of Mexico. His remarks are quoted in full 
below. The Hon. Robert B. Roosevelt records that he observed the Blue- 
fish fry less than an inch in length in the inlet of Far Rockaway, N. Y., 
on the 10th of July : 
Little is known of their reproduction. Dr. Yarrow does not give any 
facts in regard to this subject, at Fort Macon, except that spawn was seen 
to run out of a small female caught July 14. Dr. Holbrook is also silent on 
this head. Mr. Genio C. Scott says the spawning beds are visited by the 
parent in June, and consists of quiet nooks or bays. Mr. R. B. Roose¬ 
velt states that very diminutive young occur in immense numbers along 
the coast at the end of September or beginning of October (“Game Fish 
of America,” 1862, 1859.) Prof. Baird found the young fish at Bees- 
ley’s Point, N. J., in July, 1854, two or three inches in length, and 
more compressed than the adult; but farther east, on Vineyard Sound, 
although diligent search was conducted, between the middle of June and 
the ist of October, with most efficient apparatus in the way of fine-meshed 
nets, I met with nothing excepting fish that made their appearance all at 
once along the edge of the bay and harbor. 
According to Capt. Edwards, of Woods Holl, a very accurate obser¬ 
ver, they have no spawn in them when in Vineyard Sound. This state¬ 
ment is corroborated by Capt. Hinckley; and Capt. Hallett, of Hyannis, 
“does not know where they spawn.” The only positive evidence on this 
subject is that of Capt. Pease, who states it as the general impression about 
Edgartown that they spawn about the last of July or the ist of August. 
He has seen them when he thought they were spawning on the sand, hav¬ 
ing caught them a short time before, full of spawn, and finding them after¬ 
ward for a time thin and weak. He thinks their spawning ground is on 
