i.88 
AMERICAN FISHES. 
Spanish Mackerel visit the shores of our Atlantic states, on a mission of 
feeding and breeding. 
In early spring they appear in schools off our southern coast, appearing 
in the waters of West Florida early in March, or even in the latter part of 
February, reaching Pensacola about the beginning of April. Off the 
Carolinas, their coming is a little later, for they do not reach Charleston 
before the end of March, and really enter the sounds of Pamlico and 
Albemarle until a month later. By the 20th of May, they are rounding 
the capes of Virginia, and the schools rapidly increase in number in the 
inland sea of the Chesapeake, until the middle of June, and their abund¬ 
ance continues through the summer and early autumn. In July and 
August they are most abundant off the coasts of New York and Southern 
New England, where they remain in considerable numbers through the 
early part of September—-just as they did in the days of Mitchill, and, so 
far as we can know, in the seventeenth century when Josselyn described 
the fishes of New England. 
With the approach of the autumnal equinox, their southward migrations 
begin. The first of October finds them absent from the region north of 
New Jersey, and by November they have deserted the waters of the United 
States, unless perchance, a few may still remain among the reefs and 
sand-beds of the Florida Keys. 
They are lovers of warm waters, even more so than the blue-fish, for 
they precede in the fall migration the schools of menhaden, while the 
blue-fish follow them. Their breeding season in the Chesapeake occurs 
when the temperature of the water ranges from 78° to 84°, and it is 
believed that they do not willingly enter water colder than 6o° 
Their habits are much like those of the blue-fish, with which they are 
laid to associate. They are much more active in their movements, and 
sport and dance between sky and water almost like swallows skimming 
over a lake. No oceanic fishes which I have seen are so admirably built 
for springing. Their tails are muscular, shapely, provided with oar-like 
fins, formed like the crescent moon. Their bodies are conical, arrow-like, 
smooth as burnished metal, and their speed must be as matchless as that of 
the dolphins. When the blue-fish leaps, it is with more deliberation and 
noise, falling back into the water with a splash, while the sharp head of 
the Spanish Mackerel cuts the water like the stem of a yacht. Mr. Earll 
tells me that the Chesapeake fishermen can indentify the species by its 
movements as far as the eye can see. 
