THE CAVALLY AND OTHER CARANGOIDS . 
23 1 
1 
West Indies and along the eastern coast of the United States. According 
to Stearns, individuals of this species are rather rare in the northern part 
of the Gulf, but more common along the South Florida coast. They live 
in shallow water and in harbors, usually moving about in small schools. 
At Key West they are caught in seines, and are eaten. 
The Scads, known in England as the “ Horse-Mackerels,” appear to 
occur in all temperate and tropical waters. The distribution is given by 
Gunther as follows : “ From the coasts of the temperate parts of Europe, 
along the coasts of Africa, round the Cape of Good Hope into the East 
Indian seas, to the coasts of New Zealand and West America.” As has 
been shown by Liitken, Steindachner, and Jordan and Gilbert, three dis¬ 
tinct species are confounded by Gunther under the name Trachurus 
tracliurus . 
In Europe our scad ranges north to the Trondhjem Fjord, latitude 65°, 
and is said to occur as far south as Portugal. On the coast of Holland it 
is known as the “ Marse Banker,” or “ Hors.” It is interesting to 
American ichthyologists, since the similarity of its habits to those of the 
menhaden, so important in our waters, caused the latter fish to be called 
among the early Dutch colonists of New York by the same name. Euro¬ 
pean writers describe the Scads as occurring upon those coasts in schools 
of immense numbers, and it would seem that although their manner of 
swimming resembles that of the menhaden, in their other habits they more 
closely resemble our bluefish. They are considered to be food-fishes of 
fair quality, and attain the length of about twelve inches. They are sup¬ 
posed to spawn about the same time as the mackerel. Only three 
specimens of this species have ever been taken in the United States, one 
by the Fish Commission in Southern New England in 1878, and subse¬ 
quently two others by Jordan and Stearns, at Pensacola. In California, 
according to Jordan, the allied species T. picturatus occurs and is known 
as the “ Horse-Mackerel.” He remarks : “It reaches a length of about 
a foot and a weight of less than a pound. It ranges from Monterey 
southward to Chili, appearing in California in the summer, remaining in 
the spawning season, and disappearing before December. It arrives at 
Santa Barbara in July, and at Monterey in August. In late summer it is 
exceedingly abundant. It forms part of the food of larger fishes, and 
great numbers are salted for bait. As a food-fish it is held in low esteem, 
but whether this is due entirely to its small size we do not know. It is 
identical with the well-known Mediterranean species.” 
