ALBERT R. MANN LIBRARY NEw YorK STATE COLLEGES OF AGRICULTURE AND HoME ECONOMICS AT CORNELL UNIVERSITY THE GIFT OF WILLARD A, KIGGINS DATE DUE GAYLORD nell U QL 625.664" FU 7 AMERICAN FISHES. AMERICAN FISHES A POPULAR TREATISE GAME AND FOOD FISHES NORTH AMERICA WITH ESPECIAL REFERENCE TO HABITS AND METHODS OF CAPTURE BY G. BROWN GOODE Assistant Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution ; Corresponding Member of the Zoological Society of 5 London, the Deutsche Fischerei Verein, the National Fish-Cullure Association of Great Britain, the Northern Fisheries Society of Japan, etc., etc.s late United States Commissioner of Fisheries, and Commissioner to the International Lisheries Exhibitions tn Berlin and London. WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS PHILADELPHIA : FAULKNER & ALLAN. 1888, 366243 COPYRIGHTED, 1887. pe ee ENGRAVINGS MADE BY THE PHOTO ENGRAVING CO. 67 PARK PLACE, NEW YORK. DEDICATION. This little book on the fishes of America, ts dedicated to my Brother-Ichthyologists in other lands Dr. NICHOLAS APOSTOLIDES, of Athens ; Dr. ROBERT COLLETT, of Christiania ; Dr. FRANCIS DAY, of Cheltenham, England; Pror. ENRICO H. GIGLIOLI, of Florence ; Dr. ALBERT C. L. G. GUNTHER, of the British Museum; Dr. JAMES HECTOR. of New Zealand ; Pror. A. A. HUBRECHT, of Utrecht; Dr. FRANZ M. HILGENDORF, of Berlin; Messrs. K. ITO, and S. MATSUBARA, of Japan; Dr. CHRISTIAN LUTKEN, of Copenhagen ; Dr. ANDRE-JEAN MALMGREN, of Helsingfors ; Pror. PIETRO PAVESI, of Pavia; Dr. EMILE SAUVAGE, of Paris ; Pror. F. A. SMITT, of Stockholm ; Don FELIPE POEY, of Havana ; Dr. FRANZ STEINDACHNER, of Vienna; Dr. DECIO VINCIGUERRA, of Rome; Pror. OSCAR von GRIMM, of St. Petersburg— zn memory of much pleasant intercourse in the past, especially during the recent Fisheries Exhibitions tn Berlin and Lon- don, and with the hope that its publication may lead to a wider popular appreciation, in America, of the emeportance and interest of Ichthyologtical Science. ‘cn a A Je recongnieu, sonnant sa grosse conche, Glauque, Protée, Nerée, et mille autres dieux et monstres marins. Veismes aussi nombre infiny de potssons, en especes diverses, dangants, volants, voltigeants, combattants, man- geants, respirants, belutants, chassants, dressants escar- mouches, faisants embuscade, composants trefoes, mar- chandants, jurants, sebuttants. Enun coing la pres veismes Aristoteles, tenant une lanterne, expiant, considerant, le tout redigeant par escripe. PANIAGRUEL, V., xxxi. Be ar WA? Oe ACC f i Be ‘y Quis, nist vidisset, pisces sub undas natare crederet. Linnaus. CONTENTS. Page. Prologue ..rcees ee esate eas Mee A ERS SMedosiesTds aoe a nceose ces cavecuseusmereeugute xl Lhe: VeUuow: Paral soscsvanaapsin sec even; aga giosstasousteiievsauansivageoadas I LUE Pike PCrohessavsaawacvon casas vases sdotesdeass ated avisaadgaecase subi tavides Il LUC SEAPCU: BUSS aes vet se yiecak'on seid bias deus dance Disks da dleoasiGa tae 22 The White Bass and the Vellow BasS..cccccccocevevevees aisles sisla'e! sna ena nie 32 LUG Whe Perohs so deasced cSacnacanntatyeatcaai eevee ov adaadsonoun assets eeeune 35 LMSW: DBAS SOS ici Bihan sere ls ici ORES OS AAC hes a auleies eerste eee 39 The Groupers and the Jew Fishiccccccccccccccccvevcccusevcventnccuaceusuececs 47 LRG BUGGER BOSSES orca ce Nitta ab saceevalidadusumntenwensanne Soe esr eke nes 54 The Sun Fishes and thetyr Al ..cccccccoccccocscaccccuccecscecusasescnsusecs 64 Snappers and Red Mouths. ..ccccccvccccovcecccccccccvecccuuscecuecsasesnanass 73 LUE SUCER SHOUD 32 ihitct aces eaten ed sisna yas oiauln case Setes ones OE Saha 83 The Scuppaug and the Fair Maid ccccccccccosecccsccsvecevscavscccccaneces 92 The Red Drum......... DSc ae, Has ci prestnlp cic tin’s slen AlamIOu bin Suited auuminm ana Daunte IOI FRCS TUCO E100 soins van seh set Sapsseisinls Roa. daisn oe suse OBC SIN date dasindsgsbaehak cok 9 110 THE ROU ee Quam TSMR as vis wuene 2a gia ahisis Bd upping musea sien dws ena 123 Spots, Cromkers aed ROncd Ors acccyccecscivsvaiwer vues cvaveaveaveveavasacscs 129 DOU DOE Cd LOR DPW ce tlaisdnsninlgnatsas palenmmeaonuen Vas vanvarie'l codes 136 Cobia, Moonfish and Flasher ccccccccccccccceccecccecuesancceccucsussescencese 144 LAG EN EITOI sees as elias ean eau hn Sigs Head as aes eld ok aaa 157 LW EBL EL OE BRE TED ATI we sacein xsi aah sen ga td sesh Steaks 163 The Spanish Mackerel and the Ceroes..ccccccccccsrucececccsececccuneccecene 184 TR TO OD day ce sir eat cobalt dauatiansleSepstihg dee ais ald Gada 198 x AMERICAN FISHES. Lhe LL ar 008E LURES so vec sweuasraaias ive Was 66% ba vida WadSe tn cd anslsesaleddee ned oek 221 The Cavally and other Carangotds..cccccccccccccccccccecvcvceescucsececnees 226 Sword Fish, Spear Fish and Cutlass Fish.sccscccccccccccccuseccscsseceeens 239 The Rose Fish and tts Ales ..cccsceccceccecevenceeees eleciae abuses cae detisks 257 Pike; MUSROUUAGE CHE PLCRERAL ic Slit tiie das ee Caidaiaa gviei solar nan ses 274 Tautog, Chogset and Parrot-fish.ccccccccccacccnccencnsncntesescssnsesecusess 287 SEUDING GH IGUPROLAS, Scrccwadaielais-. raaeensiades dua radian uaincablecon vase eek 307 Halibut, Flatist: and LLU cwospoussancenpsmed \enea tan ev eendwvies vecasec’ 307 Cod, Pollock, Fladdock Gnd LAR Cywyivcx wean ysrevinaatiesveseas oi vescecceeceen 2r8 LLG NIL aL S ars ccatce sacaiess.'y stetra sion ails Pts 8 Osi8 Wa ele TRE Woah nie ude acaled daau ee neenaced 365 TRE COlSSH OF BULLEN LO vacsesesyaces 20s cde dat cn stud fa biaeneancaneos sees 4 376 LRG LLORES OME TS ALLIES oa ciseticiaaia edaheiardanianis ina aadgawarean Ruben oewsaa Ds 381 COI, POCO ONE. METHOGE vice secues sed ae ddoassenie boo euawtaal@esehaeweiees 411 LUA SOUUMON cise bas Sagan kdion a deiie hale aa tae s Raion bwaee ee a neu Oea Gna ania Ueeeghs 441 TRE SCUMOM LU OULS cs cag Sale nian dais gaieisjnsishag Augen@nleeiad vies bbe RaSh oaisaa ee ee 454 TiO GRE “THOUS acre sp cians.be adelncni de Sashes Sa ek dA RHA Nba aawei ohare dees oath 462 THE BEOOR: LP OUSOF CHAPS. pions tan scesiin wacom sina acai deusesia sede wwinven ate 469 LRG POCHCE SOUMNOTS sa 5e seaside eA SSG sigh vests aaa bay saga peusleseNeAG Sx 480 Phe GPAYTIUG Ss aisiis van io Ca iis Sea Cay ee bate sab ad Sa paadeiesas eteawe see eeeeeea TER 484 The VWhite-fishes and the Smelts ........0045 Saison lon Wak Mink wuaatedtewanterematicns 488 PROLOGUEL. ‘Hysic pév *eyduohoyycopev. ATHENEUS: Detpnosophia. c6( OME, let us discourse about fish,’’ said Athenzeus, in his ‘‘ Deipno- sophia,’? and so said Mr. A. R. Hart, coming into my study last January. ‘‘ Write us a book about fish and fishing in America,”’ he urged, and since, as it happens, I know more about fish and fishing in America than I do about anything else, I consented. This volume has been prepared for the use of the angler, the lover of nature, and the general reader. It is not intended for naturalists, and the technicalities of zoological description have therefore been avoided ; for the concise and precise phraseology of science, admirable though it be for the use of those who have been trained to employ it, is to others not only misleading, but it may be, repulsive. I have aimed to include in my discussion every North American fish which is likely to be of interest to the general reader, either because of its gameness or its economic uses. All others are excluded, because, from the standpoint of scientific interest, every one of the seventeen hun- dred and fifty species indigenous to our continent has equal claim to con- sideration, and to discuss, or even casually mention them all, within the limits of a book of ordinary size, would be next to impossible. President Jordan’s recent pamphlet, entitled ‘‘A Catalogue of the Fishes Known to Inhabit the Waters North of the Tropic of Cancer, with notes on the Species Discovered in 1883 and 1884,’’ contains, with its indexes, 184 pages, and this is merely a list. His ‘‘ Synopsis of the Fishes of North America,’’ which simply enumerates and gives brief diagnoses of the four- teen hundred or more species known in 1882; contains 1018 pages. The former of these works is published by the United States Fish Commission, the latter by the National Museum, and to these and to the numerous monographic papers published in the transactions of learned societies and scientific institutions in America and abroad, I would refer the student xil AMERICAN FISHES. who desires to make a serious study of the technical portion of American ichthyology. My own little library of works on fish and fishing is far from complete, yet it includes over two thousand volumes and pamphlets, and my ‘ Bibliography of American Ichthyology,’’ which I hope to pub- lish within the next two years, comprises nearly ten thousand titles of books and papers. It is evident that it is impossible to make a book on American fishes which shall include more than a very small part, indeed, of what might be said upon the subject. I hope that the readers of this volume will feel that a judicious selection of topics has been made. Only the most important species are referred to, and in the discussion of them all descriptive matters are omitted save those which relate to color. There is an Oriental proverb to the effect that, ‘* Though the dis- tance between the ear and the eye is very small, the difference between hearing and seeing is very great.’’ Acting in the spirit of this wise saying, a figure of almost every species * discussed is presented, by the aid of which any one interested in fishes can determine the correct zoological name of the form before him, and by referring to the accompanying text can learn what is known about its geographical range, habits, methods of capture and economical uses. Exact bibliographical references are given in footnotes, to direct the reader to fuller discussions of subjects referred to when there are such in existence. In the preparation of this book constant use has been made of my own previous writings, and especially to the quarto work on Food Fishes, published by the Government in 1885. Upon that work, in fact, this one is based, being essentially a rearrangement in condensed form. The text has, however, been for the most part rewritten, and much new matter has been added. One of my chief motives in preparing this volume has been the desire to see some of the results of twenty years’ study of fishes printed in substantial and dignified form, in a book which shall not look out of place on a library shelf; for it has been my lot hitherto to have all the products of my pen published in those dismal looking bunches of papers known as public documents, which of necessity must be classified among Charles Lamb’s ‘‘ books which are not books.’’ The author acknowledges his extended and continued indebtedness, in * Nearly all of the figures of American species are copied from the figures in the publications of the U.S. Fish Commission, and, by the kind consent of Prof. Baird, the engravings have in most instances been made direct from the original drawings. The remainder have been copied from standard European authorities. PROLOGUE. xlil the first place to his teacher and master, Prof. Baird, and secondly, to his colleagues in the preparation of the quarto volume just referred to, especially to Dr. Jordan, Dr. Bean, Capt. Collins, Mr. Earll and Mr. Stearns. If in some instances the quotation marks have been omitted in connection with statements derived from their pen, it is simply because in the work of abridgment certain changes have been made in their phraseology, for which it seems hardly proper to hold them responsible. It is proper to say that all the biographies of the fishes of the Pacific, and the minor fresh- water species, are due to Jordan, and that Stearns is equally responsible for what is said of the fishes of the Gulf of Mexico. With Bean the writer has long sustained a partnership in all matters ichthyological , with Collins and Earll similar relations in matters connected with the study of fishery economy, and in such associations it is not always possible to separate interests in such a manner as to place credit where it properly belongs. The classification followed is the system elaborated and ad- vocated by Dr. Gill, undoubtedly the most erudite and philosophic of liv- ing systematic ichthyologists. Perhaps some may feel aggrieved because there are no discussions of rods, reels, lines, hooks and flies, and no instructions concerning camp- ing out, excursions, routes, guides and hotels. To such the author would say that he has at present neither time nor inclination to enter upon these subjects. Men who know them better than he have already written what should be written. Thaddeus Norris’s ‘‘ American Angler’s Book’? is an excellent guide in the selection and construction of tackle. Roosevelt’s “¢Game Fishes of the North’’ and ‘‘Superior Fishing’’ are full of good suggestions, and Scott’s ‘‘ Fishing in American Waters,’’ and even the works of Brown and Frank Forrester, are at times useful. Hallock’s “«Sportsman’s Gazetteer’’ points out distant localities for sport to the few who are not satisfied with home attractions. The files of ‘‘ Forest and Stream,’’ ‘‘ The American Field’’ and ‘‘ The American Angler’’ are treasuries which cannot be exhausted, and the back volumes of the monthlies, ‘‘ Harpers,’’ ‘‘ Lippincott’s’’ and the “ Century ”’ are full of finely illustrated essays, of interest to fishermen and anglers. ’ The English “ Field,’’? ‘Land and Water’? and ‘‘ Fishing Gazette’? are also full of interest for Americans. Prof. Mayer’s ‘‘Sport with Gun and Rod in American Woods and Waters ’’ is a charming and instructive book made up chiefly of reprinted magazine essays. x1v AMERICAN FISHES. The Reports and Bulletins of the United States Fish Commission must not be overlooked, and the reports of the State Commissions, the reports of the Canadian Department of Fishery, the bulletin of the French Society of Acclimation, the circulars of the German Fischerei-Verein, and the publications of the London and Berlin Fisheries Exhibitions are worthy of study. I do not think that the term ‘‘ game fish ’’ has ever been properly defined. It is generally supposed to apply to fishes which are active, wily and cour- ageous, and whose capture requires skill or cunning—those, in short, which afford sport to the sportsman. As a matter of fact, although most food fishes are not game fishes, no fish which is not of the highest rank as a table delicacy is rated by Americans as a game fish. The barbel, the dace and the roach, the pets of the father of angling, classical in the pages of sportsman’s literature, are despised by new world authorities, and are now considered ‘coarse fish’? even by English writers. Vet they afford excellent sport—sport which in England tens of thousands enjoy to every one who gets the chance to whip a salmon or trout line over preserved waters. ‘«Game’”’ in law and every day usage is a term employed to describe wild animals—fere nature, in which no man holds personal title of possession. Game birds are those which can only be obtained occasion- ally and with difficulty, and which, having been obtained, are worthy the notice of the epicure. Game fishes are rated in much the same manner, it appears to me. If not, why were the Pompano, the King-fish and the California Salmon and the Spanish Mackerel included among the twenty: selected to be painted by Kilbourn for Scribner’s atlas of the game fishes of the United States. Surely not because they afford sport to the sports- man. Some years ago I defined the term as follows: Game fishes are those which by reason of the courage, strength, beauty and the sapidity of their flesh are sought for by those who angle for sport with delicate fishing tackle. Now I should simply say that— A game fish is a choice fish, a fish not readily obtained by wholesale methods at all seasons of the year, nor constantly to be had in the mar- kets—a fish, furthermore, which has some degree of intelligence and cun- ning, and which matches its own wits against those of the angler, requir- ing skill, forethought and ingenuity to compass its capture. PROLOGUJE. xv Many writers, especially those of America, show a disposition to deny the rank of ‘‘game fishes’’ to all species which will not rise to a surface lure. This is illogical such, if it were strictly insisted upon, sheepshead and sea-bass would be counted out, while the shad and even the gar-pike must needs be allowed at least humble positions among the game fishes. I hope that the readers of this book will freely communicate to me any new facts concerning American fishes, or any criticisms of erroneous state- ments, for use In preparing such fuller and better editions of this book as it may be decided in future to publish. It is a great satisfaction to feel that this little volume will probably be the companion of men whom I know, or should like to know, in numerous delightful excursions to lake, brook and sea. In closing this prologue I feel disposed to repeat the prayer at the end of Walton’s immortal pas- toral: ‘That the blessing of St. Peter’s master be upon all that hate contentions, and love quietnesse, and virtue, and go a-angling.’’ G. B. G. SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, WASHINGTON, Dec. 1, 1886. N vain had God stor’d Heav’n with glistring studs, The plain with grain, the mountain tops with woods, Sever’d the Aire from Fire, the Earth from Water, Had he not soon peopled this large Theatre With living creatures: therefore he began (This-Day) to quicken in the Ocean In standing Pools, and in the straggling Rivers (Whose folding Chanell fertill Champain severs) So many Fishes of so many features That in the Waters one may see all Creatures And all that in this All is to be found : As if the World within the Deeps were drown’d, One (like a Pirat) onely lives of prizes, That in the Deep he desperately surprises ; - Another haunts the shore, to feed on foam: Another round about the Rocks doth roam, Nibbling on Weeds ; another hating theeving, Eats nought at all, of liquor onely living ‘ For the salt humor of his element Servs him, alone, for perfect nourishment. Some love the clear streams of swift tumbling torrents. Which through the rocks straining their struggling currents Break Banks & Bridges; and do never stop Till thirsty Summer comes to drink them up ; Some almost alwaies pudder in the mud Of sleepy Pools, and never brook the flood Of Chrystall streams, that in continuall motion Bend toward the bosom of their Mother Ocean. O watry Citizens, what Umpeer bounded Your liquid Livings ? O! what Monarch mounded With walls your City? what severest Law Keeps your huge armies in so certain aw, That you encroach not on the neighboring Borders Of your swim-brethren ? What cunning Prophet your fit time doth show? What Heralds trumpet summons you to go? What Guide conducteth, Day & Night, your Legions Through path-less Path in unacquainted Regions? Surely the same that made you first of Nought Who in your Nature some /deas wrought Of Good and Evill; to the end that we Following the Good might from the Evill flee. Du Bartas His First Week; or The Birth of the World, 1605 AMERICAN FISHES. THE YELLOW PERCH. Perca fluviatilis, It is a true fish, such as the angler loves to put into his basket or hang on top of his willow twig on shady afternoons, along the banks of the streams. Tuoreau, Walden Pond. v Tr PERCH isa member of a very ancient race. A closely related form has been found fossil in the tertiary deposits of (Eningen, and its wide distribution throughout the northern hemisphere testifies to its existence in its present form at a remote period. Additional evidence of the antiquity of the species is found in the fact that its common names are much the same in many European languages which diverged from a common stock, thousands of years back in history. The Perch is found almost everywhere in Europe, though it is said to be rare in the north of Scotland. It ranges to Lapland and Siberia, and ascends the slopes of the Alps to the height of more than 4ooo feet. It inhabits the sea of Azov, and the brackish waters of the Caspian and Baltic, and is everywhere a well-known and useful species. In America it exists in all the waters of the Atlantic slope, from Labra- dor to Georgia, throughout the Great Lake region, and in the upper part I 2 AMERICAN FISHES. of the Mississippi valley, especially in the tributaries of the Mississippi in Wisconsin and Minnesota, and of the Ohio, in Indiana and Ohio. It does not occur in the lower Mississippi basin, nor on the western slope of the Alleghanies. .There is no representative of the genus in the tributaries of the Pacific, either American or Asiatic, but the allied Percichthys replaces it in tem- perate South America (Patagonia, Peru and Chili), while in northern China Scniperca fills its stead. The Stone-perch, Pope, Ruffe, Kaul- barsch or Gremille, of Europe, Acerina cernua, which somewhat resembles the Perch, though more nearly related to the Pike-perches is, perhaps fortunately, not found in America. Authorities are not harmonious in opinion as to the specific identity of the American and the European Perch. Giinther, Steindachner and Day maintain that they are the same, while Jordan is equally positive that the Perca americana or P. flavescens of American writers is at least a dis- tinct sub-species. It is my own impression that the American Perch can- not be positively separated from that of Europe, which, as Day has shown, is extensively variable in form and color. Perch frequent quiet waters of moderate depth, pools under hollow banks, eddies and expansive shady reaches in the meadow brooks, creeks and canals, preferring the sides of the stream to swift currents, and sandy and pebbly rather than muddy bottoms. In mill-ponds they are likely to be found in the deep water just above the dam, and in the vicinity of piles of locks, bridges and sluice gates. They sometimes descend into the brackish water of estuaries, where they become large and very firm fleshed. In muddy pools they often assume a golden color, but in such situations are soft and rarely well flavored. ‘‘As a still-water pond fish,’’ writes Abbott, “if there is a fair supply of spring-water, they thrive excellently; but the largest specimens come either from the river or from the in-flowing creeks. Deep water of the temperature of ordinary spring-water, with some current, and the bed of a stream, at least partially covered with vegetation, best suits this fish.’’ They are gregarious, and there is an Old-country saying that when the angler meets a school of Perch he may capture every one, if he be wary and noiseless. “Perch, like the Tartar clans, in troops remove, And urged by famine or by pleasure rove ; But if one prisoner, as in war, you seize, THE VELLOIW PERCH. 3 You'll prosper, master of the camp with ease ; For, like the wicked, unalarmed they view Their fellows perish, and their path pursue.’’* Day tells us that in the famous Norfolk Broads the fish assemble in shoals according to their sizes, the smaller and larger individuals keeping to themselves, and repelling the intrusion of those that materially differ from themselves in this respect. The writer has observed a similar natural ,association in the lakes of the Hudson and Housatonic basins. In winter they retreat to the deepest parts of their domain. Here they adapt themselves to circumstances; if the temperature of the water approxi- mates the freezing point, they become torpid; if it remains above 38° or 40° F., they do not suffer any inconvenience. Dr. Abbott found a large number of them in December and January, in a deep hole in the bed of a tide-water creek, about half an acre in extent and twenty feet deep ; ‘they were in moderately good condition, active and in high color, with empty stomachs, and refusing to feed, a habit by no means invariable, ‘however, at this season. As spring advances they assume their ordinary mode of life. With the warming of the waters the eggs begin to swell in the ovaries, the colors brighten, particularly in the males, and the lower parts of the body in both sexes assume a ruddy hue. Spawning time varies in different locali- ties. It is of course largely dependent upon the temperature of the water, though the requisite standard of heat most probably changes with latitude. In New Jersey, according to Abbott, it comes in May, with the water at 55° F., and in Sweden, by Malm’s observations, in May, also, at 50°F. In Virginia and Maryland Perch spawn in March and April; in France and Austria, from March to May; in England and Sweden, in April and May. When the Marsh, Marigold, or ‘‘ Cowslip,’’ Ca/tha palustris, blooms in the wet meadows, the spawning time of the Perch is near at hand. That Perch spawn twice in the year, is a popular belief in Europe. This idea ‘must have originated in the fact, well known to students of fish, that many individuals retain their eggs long after the end of the normal spawning time. Among some Perches, twenty millimeters long, taken late in September, 1866, in the Rhine, a French naturalist found three males prepared for breeding as well as a female with ovaries hardly visible. The proportion of males to females varies curiously with locality. Out of one hundred taken at Salzburg only ten were males, and Cuvier stated * Oppian’s Halieutics, 4 AMERICAN FISHES. that the proportion of males was as one to fifty. VonSiebold found one-third males at Munich, and Manley in England one-tenth. It would be well worth while for American anglers to continue these observations, as well as to make some new counts of the number of eggs. The only reliable recent enumerations appear to be those made by Buckland in 1868. He found 127,240 eggs in a fish of 2 pounds rx ounces, and 155,620 in one of 3 pounds 2 ounces. Lacépéde put the figure at 1,000,000, Bloch at 28,000, and Abbott at 8,000. The eggs are from 2 to 2% mm. in diameter, or about as large as poppy seeds. They are of the adhesive class, and cling together in beautifully interlaced bands, like pearl necklaces, five or six feet long and an inch or two in width. These glutinous masses adhere to twigs and stones in shallow water, and are devoured by birds and all kinds of aquatic animals. The eggs begin to expand soon after fertilization. At a temperature of 59°, F. Malm hatched some eggs in four days and nine hours; at the end of a week or ten days after the eggs were laid, Abbott frequently found minute Yellow Perch, associated with little Sun-fish, tangled in among the water plants, active as their strength permitted, and darting voraciously at almost invisible specks, that seemed to serve them for food. The little perchettes grow very fast, and in a year or two they have reached maturity. Edward Jesse observed a fish three inches long which was full of spawn. Perch rarely exceed a pound or two in weight. ‘‘ Une Perche de deux kilogrammes est un phenix tres-rare,’’ says De la Blanchere. Some large ones are on record. An individual taken in Delaware Bay, by Abbott, weighed four and one-quarter pounds. In England three-pounders are thought large; but Pennant mentions one of nine pounds, taken in the Serpentine in Hyde Park. Giinther puts the limit at four pounds, but Seeley states that in Russia, in Lake Seligher they reach eight pounds. The artificial propagation of the Perch was accomplished as early as 1856 by Malm, a Swedish naturalist, and is said to have beeen repeated in this country. Many ponds have been stocked with grown fish, Dr. S. L. Mitchill transplanted them from Ronkonkoma Pond in Suffolk County to Success Pond in Queens County, N. Y. The species is very properly excluded from waters in which trout and carp are to be cultivated. It is said that poachers often revenge their grievances by stocking trout ponds with Perch. They have been known to deposit their eggs in aquarium tanks, where, with care, they will doubtless hatch their young. THE VELLOW PERCH. 5 The Saxons, it is said, represented one of their gods standing with naked feet on the back of a Perch, as an emblem of constancy in trial and patience in adversity. With his bristling array of thorny fin-spines, the Perch is a fair type of sturdy independence, a Diogenes of the brooks and ponds, well described by Drayton in his ‘‘ Poylyolbion :”’ ‘The Perch with prickling fins against the Pike prepar’d As nature had thereon bestow’d this stronger guard His daintiness to keep.” The angler cannot be too careful in unhooking these spike-armed heroes, for the armature of the fins inflicts wounds painful and difficult to heal. They feed on worms, grubs, insects and even small fishes of their own species and are voracious in the extreme. ‘‘In feeding,’’ writes Dr. Abbott, ‘Yellow Perch chase small minnows instead of waiting for a single fish to come near enough to seize by a single dart upon it, as the Pike does. They are not rapid in their movements, but seem to dart with open mouth at several minnows, as though trusting to catch some one of the number they pursue.’’ They are pirates, as voracious in proportion to their size as the Black Bass and the Pike. The claims of this fish to popular favor have been strangely overlooked in America, owing perhaps to the fact that anglers, like other men, have their specialties, and that most of our writers upon this subject have had hobbies other than that of Perch fishing. Surely no inhabitant of our brooks and ponds has higher claims on the score of beauty than— “The Perch with fins of Tyrian dye.” Its graceful movements and beautiful colors, its hardiness and intelli- gence makes it particularly desirable for aquarium culture. In the sunlight the scales reflect delicate hues and golden glints which are deliciously tempered by the dusky bands upon the sides and the ruddy tones of the quivering fins, which have been well compared to the reds sometimes to be seen in the glass of very old church windows. Its rank as a game fish is thus estimated by J. P. Wheeldon, angling editor of Bell’s Life: ‘‘A gloriously handsome fish, the Perch, when in condition affords excellent sport, and is a deserved favorite with each and every fisherman, be he young or old.’’ It is mentioned as a favorite in the first of all treatises on angling—that printed in Antwerp in 1492,—and is eulogized by scores of later European authorities, as well as in the ‘‘Com- plete Angler:’’ 6 AMERICAN FISHES. “¢I pray you, sir,’’ said Viator, ‘‘ give me some observations and direc- tions concerning the earch, for they say he is both a very good and a bold-biting fish, and I would fain learne to fish for him.”’ Although Norris and Scott and Roosevelt and Forester pass the Perch by with contempt, and Jordan has pronounced it ‘‘soft, coarse and insipid,’’ it is not without its advocates in America. Seth Green admits that it is an ‘‘excellent fish for the people,’’ and a ‘‘superior table fish,’’ and that when taken on light tackle with an artificial fly it affords not a little sport,* and H. H. Thompson, in the American Angler for June 2, 1883, has made an eloquent plea for this worthy little species, in which he is supported by such eminent anglers as D. W. Cross and A. N. Cheney. I venture the prediction that before many years the Perch will have as many followers as the Black Bass among those who fish for pleasure in the waters of the Eastern United States. A fish for the people it is, we will grant, and it is the anglers from among the people, who have neither time, money nor patience for long trips and complicated tackle, who will prove its steadfast friends. As an article of food a Perch taken from clear, cool water is undoubtedly superior to many popular marine species. Ray tells us that it was formerly called Perdrix aguarum—the partridge of the waters, and Ausonius thus sounds its praise :— ‘Nor will I pass thee over in silence, O Perch, the delicacy of the tables, worthy among river fish to be compared with seafish ; thou alone are able to contend with the Red Mullets.’’ + In Venner’s ‘‘ Via Recta ad Vitam Longam”’ printed in 1650, we are told that Perch taken in pure water are for taste and nourishment equal to Trout or Pickerel, ‘*Perch,’’ adds this writer, ‘is usually sauced with butter or vinegar, but add thereto the flavor of nutmeg, which to this fish is very proper, it becomes delectable to the taste and grateful to the stomach. The spawn of Perch is of delicate and whole- some nourishment, very good for the weak.”’ A recent British authority writes that it is unsurpassed by any non- migrating species, except the eel, and that it more closely resembles the sole than any other fresh-water fish. There are in America many who prefer the Perch to the bass, and even to the brook trout, and among them are some independent enough to. *American Angler, May 15, 1886, + The Moselle, x, 115, THE VELLOW PERCH. 7 say so. Frank Buckland writes: ‘‘ Our friend, the Perch, is one of the most beautiful fish which it has pleased Providence to place in our waters. Not only does he afford the angler excellent sport, but to the professed cook his arrival in time for the menu is most welcome, as witness water souché, as served at ministerial dinners, city banquets or private parties at Richmond and Greenwich.’’* The simplest way to catch Perch is with the boy’s standard outfit: a “pole,’’ a stout line, a large float and heavy sinkerand a worm or minnow for bait. This is effective when the water is muddy and the Perch are numerous and hungry. For wary fish in clearer water more delicate tackle is necessary. The line should be fine, and a simple reel may be used; the float should be small and well balanced, and the shot used for sinkers only heavy enough to keep the float steady. The float should be adjusted so that the bait may be suspended about a foot from the bottom, and a gentle motion upwards and downwards may advantageously be employed, A favorite gear for Perch in England and France is the ‘‘ pater noster.”’ This name was always a puzzle to me until I saw the apparatus in its French form, when its origin was at once intelligible. The gutta-percha beads and round sinkers of wood and lead suggested at once arosary. The pater-noster used in England at the present day ismuch more simple. It is thus described by Francis Francis: ‘For Perch fishing the pater-noster simply consists of a line of gut about 4 or5 feet long; at the bottom of this isaleaden bullet or plummet to sink it to the bottom; about 6 or 8 inches above this a hook on some * How to Cook Perch.—This famous dish, water souché, souchy or sokey, does not seem to have been naturalized in America. The following recipe from an old angler’s manual seems more practicable than others given by later authorities: Scale and wash your Perch; put salt in your water; when it boils put in the fish with an onion cut in slices; put in chopped parsley enough to turn the water white; season with salt and pepper, and as soon as the fish is done serve it in a deep dish, pouring a little water over it, with the parsley and onions. Melted butter and parsley should be served inatureen, Slices of brown bread and butter generally accompany this dish. The writer has tasted a water souché prepared by a famous London cook, but does not remember it with rapture. The favorite American method is to fry the Perch toa crisp, with salt pork rather than with butter, In summer, when the skin is slightly bitter, it may advantageously be removed, at other times the fish is better simply scaled. This method is hearty and best adapted to the needs of hungry anglers. Many will prefer the continental method of stewing them in vinegar or lemon juice, or insome kind ofsour sauce, In Italy they are roasted on the spit without removing the scales, and bathed while roasting with vinegar or lemon juice, a method not unsuitable to camp life in the woods. The follow- ing directions are taken from the ‘‘ [International Fishery Exhibition Cookery Book: . Boiled Perch.—Lay the fish in boiling water, with a 4% pound of salt to each gallon, and simmer gently for about ten minutes. Garnish with parsley and serve with plain melted butter. (This resembles the water souché. a Perch.—Brush the fish over with egg, and sprinkle bread crumbs over it. put the fish in and fry a nice brown. Serve with anchovy sauce. © Perch Stewed with Wine.—Lay them ona stew pan with sufficient stock and sherry to cover them, Put in a bay leaf, garlic, parsley, two cloves and salt, and simmer till tender, then remove the fish, strain the liquor, add a thickening of butter and flour, pepper, nutmeg and anchovy sauce; sit it over the fire until some- what reduced, pour over the fish and serve, ‘‘ Broiled Perch flitters’’ are spoken of with enthusiasm by early gourmets. Have ready boiling lard: 8 AMERICAN FISHES. 6 inches of gut is fastened ; a foot above this another hook is fixed on, and a foot above that again a third. This third hook is often a gimp- hook when pike and Perch are found in common, so that if a pike should come to the bait there may be a fair chance of capturing him. A minnow being hooked through the lips on each of the other hooks, the tackle is dropped into an eddy where Perch is supposed to be, and the three baits swim round and round the main line; so that, no matter whether the fish are resting at the bottom or searching for their prey in mid water, they may be attracted. As soon as there is a bite from a. Perch the angler feels it at the rod point, slackens line for two seconds to let the fish get the minnow well into his mouth, and then strikes. Should the immediate neighborhood not afford a bite the tackle is cast to a distance, and after being allowed to rest for a minute it is drawn in a few feet, when another cast is made and then another draw, until the tackle is worked up on the boat or the bank. In the winter, after the floods, very many Perch are caught in this way on the Thames, from one hundred to two hundred in a day being not very uncommonly taken.’’ Pater-nostering is said to require much skill, but this method is surely worthy of more general use in America. It may, perhaps, be preferable to hook the bait though the dorsal fin, or to use a ‘‘ tail-hook’’ to avoid the risk of losing the minnow without gaining the Perch. The French gear is more complicated than the English, the hooks being attached to long bristles, which are tied to beads of wood, rubber or iron, keptin place upon the line by means of split shot. The use of supplementary floats, or ‘‘postillions,’’ is recommended to keep the line from sinking. This apparatus is very heavy, and is more of the nature of a set line than of an angler’s apparatus. The ‘‘ledger’’ is another method sometimes employed in Perch fishing, especially in rapidly running streams, where it is not convenient to use a float. ‘“« This,’’ says Francis, ‘‘consists of a gut line a yard or two long, run through a bullet or lump of lead pierced with a round hole. On the hook side of the line an obstruction is fastened, so that the lead cannot slip down to the hook, but the line is free on the rod side of the lead, the lead is dropped into the water and rests on the bottom, a tight line between the rod top and the lead being kept. The instant a fish bites at the hook, the line being free in that direction, it is felt at the rod top, and the angler, yielding a little line to let the fish get the bait and hook well in his mouth, strikes, lifting the lead and hooks the fish.’’ In France are employed various modifications of the ledger, some of THE VELLOIV PERCH. 9 them, especially the pzche aux geux in its different forms, very complicated, and hardly to be recommended for use in America. The Perch, it is said, will also rise to an artificial bait, or to a fly, natural or artificial, especially at the end of spring, when the Ephemeras are abundant and they are preying upon surface life. Some authorities say that a gray fly is preferable; others that there is nothing equal to a red hackle. An imitation of the insect upon which they are known to be feeding at the time, or better still, the natural insect, will undoubtedly be the most effective bait. In fly-fishing for Perch a strong trout rod, or light bass rod may be used. The leader should be of gut, and may ad- vantageously be rendered inconspicuous by staining a deep blue or reddish brown—so say the experts. The flavor of the Perch is said to be finest when they are full of spawn and milt, but directly after spawning for two or three weeks, although at this time they bite ravenously, their flesh is often soft and watery. They are active and voracious throughout the summer, but in the fall months are more wary and require the exercise of the angler’s highest art. Walton observed that, though abstemious in winter, they would bite at the middle of the day even then, if it were warm. Many Perch are taken by fishing through the ice on the northern lakes. This, the only peculiarly American method of Perch fishing, is well described by Mr. A. N. Cheney, of Glen’s Falls, N. Y.: ‘«The Perch retire to deep water with a bottom of fine grass as cold weather approaches, and there they are found in February and March, which is the time for ice fishing. The tools required are an ice chisel for cutting the holes, a hand-line and sinker, fixed with a ‘ spreader,’ and snells, and though it does not come under the head of tools, a fire. The ‘spreader’ is a piece of brass wire about a foot long, turned with a pair of pliers to form an eye in the middle, to attach the line, and an eye in each end to fasten the snells. Spreaders may be obtained at the tackle shops, that have a swivel in the middle of the wire, and under- neath it an eye so that three snells may be used. The bait is the small white grub, most easily found in dead and partly rotted second-growth pine trees or logs, from which they have to be cut out with an ax. The man who catches Perch for market does not trouble himself to provide more than two or three grubs, for as soon as he catches one fish he has two baits. It seems cruel, however, to tear the eyes out of a fish that has scarcely ceased to quiver, and I could never bring myself to do it thus hastily. When the spreader is thrown through the hole cut in the ice, there is nothing to do but to wait for a bite. If a Perch takes one bite 10 AMERICAN FISHES. the matter is settled, and it is only necessary to bait and lower the hooks, for each time without fail there will be a fish brought up for each hook baited.* To the words of instruction and advice already written, I would add a sentence of warning to him who angles for Perch. Do not yield too un- reservedly to the fascination of the pastime. Remember the unfortunate angler in Bulwer’s ‘‘ My Novel.’’ ‘‘Young man, listen!’’ said Burley. ‘‘ When I was about your age, I first came to this stream to fish. Sir, on that fatal day, about 3 P. M., 1 hooked up a fish—such a big one, it must have weighed a pound-and-a-half. And just when I had got it nearly ashore, the line broke, and the Perch twisted himself among those roots and—cacodemon that he was—ran off, hook and all. Well, that fish haunted me ; never before had I seen such afish. Minnows I had caught, also gudgeons, and occasionally a dace. But a fish like that—a PERCH—all his fins up, like the sails of a man-of- war—a monster Perch,—a whale of a Perch !—No, never till then had I known what leviathans lie hid within the deeps. I could not sleep till I had returned; and again, sir—I caught that Perch. And this time I pulled him fairly out of the water. He escaped ; and how did he escape? Sir, he left his eye behind him on the hook. * * * I gazed at that eye, and the eye looked as sly and wicked as if it was laughing in my face. Well, sir, [had heard there is no better bait for a Perch than a Perch’s eye. I adjusted that eye on the hook and dropped in the line gently. In two minutes I saw that Perch return. He approached the hook ; he recognized his eye,—frisked his tail,—made a plunge—and, as I live, carried off the eye, and I saw him digesting it by the side of that water lily. The mock- ing fiend! Seven times since that day in the course of a varied and event- ful life, have Icaught that Perch, and seven times has that Perch escaped. * * * Good Heavens! If aman knew what it was to fish all one’s life in a stream that has only one Perch, to catch that Perch nine times in all and to see'it fall back into the water, plump. Why then, young sir, he would know what human life is to vain ambition.” * American Angler, March 14, 1885. ane : W\ THE SAUGER. THE PIKE-PERCHES. Sttzostedion vitreum and §. canadense. The surest way To take the fish, is give her leave to play, And yield her line. Quar.es, Shepheard’s Eclogues, rbgd. HE Pike-Perches have been known to the inhabitants of Continental Europe for many centuries, and on account of their elongated form and large teeth were described by Gesner and other medieval naturalists under the name Lucioperca—a name intended to describe their general ap- pearance, since their proportions resemble those of the pikes, while their structure resembles that of the perch, to which they are closely allied. Linnzeus in his ichthyological system, named the Scandinavian species Perca Luctoperca, and placed it in the same genus with the perch, where it remained until the time of Cuvier and Rafinesque. The former set aside this group of fishes in 1817, under the group name of ‘‘ Les Sandres,’’ but ne- glected to formally propose the genus named Lwcéoperca, until the publi- cation of the second edition of his ‘‘ Animal Kingdom”? in 1829. In the meantime the Sicilian explorer, Rafinesque, had published in 1820, his “¢ Ohio Ichthyology,’’ and named the fish S¢/zostedion, an appellation which, however meaningless and cacophonous, priority requires shall always be borne by the Pike-Perches. American ichthyologists have already submitted this necessity, but those of the old world still cling to the venerable and euphonious Luczoperca. The Pike-Perches are distributed throughout the waters of the northern hemispheres in much the same manner as the perch, though absent from 12 AMERICAN FISHES. certain areas within the limits of its range. The British Isles, France, the Rhine valley and Switzerland, New England and the South Atlantic states, are without it, and its distribution in Asiatic Russia is more restricted than that of Perca. This form is more subject to variation than the Perch, and probably a more recent product of evolution, and it has become differentiated into seve- ral fairly well-marked types. The North American species may be divided into two groups: (r) the typical form, most closely related to those of Europe, and (2) the form with small eyes, slender body, pointed head, smaller second dorsal and with pyloric cceca set aside by Gill and Jordan in the subgenus Cynoperca. In the latter category is placed S. canadense, having its spinous dorsal fin ornamented with two or three rows of round black spots, and without a blotch posteriorly, but with a dark patch at the base of each pectoral: within the limits of this species, Jordan recognizes three varieties or subspecies which intergrade to some extent, but which by old-school naturalists would have been regarded as valid species. The first of these is the Sauger or Pickering of the St. Lawrence region, S. canadense canadense, with the opercles and bones of the head considerably rougher, the number or opercular spines, (which are merely the free ends of the striz), increased, and the head more closely and extensively scaly. The second is the common Sand Pike, or Sauger, of the Great Lakes, S. canadense griseum, the Luctoperca grisea of DeKay’s ‘¢ New York Fauna,’’ and many other ichthyologies. This form is now plentiful in the Ohio River into which it is supposed to have made its way since the con- struction of the Ohio and Erie Canal. The third is the Sand Pike of the upper Missouri, S. canadense boreum, which is rather slenderer than that of the Great Lakes, having a long slender nose and a head more flattened and snake-like. A certain type of coloration is characteristic of S. canadense in all its forms, and it has fewer rays in the second dorsal fin, there being only 18, more scaly cheeks, a more prominent armature of the operculum and most significant of all, the pyloric cceca are small and unequal in length and are never less than four in number, and sometimes as many asseven. Inthe other American species these number only three, and are nearly equal in length and about as long as the stomach. Whoever wishes to identify our Pike-Perches accurately must not fail to dissect them and examine this fea- ture of internal structure. THE PIKE PERCHES. 13 The largest and most important form is Stzostedion vitreum, generally referred to by recent writers upon fishes as the Wall-eyed Pike. This well-known species is found in nearly all the water systems frequented by S. canadense, and in many others, its geographical range being much more extended. It inhabits the Great Lakes and their confluents,* and oc- curs in most of the little lakes of Western New York,—Cayuga, Seneca, Chatauqua, Oneida and many others. It ranges north to the fur countries, and is doubtless widely distributed through British America. It is found in the Susquehanna and the Juniata, in the Ohio River, and many of its tributaries, in Western Virginia and North Carolina, in Kentucky, in Rock Castle River and elsewhere in Tennessee, especially in the French Broad and at least as far south as Memphis, in Georgia in the Oostanaula river and it is said, in Arkansas. Its range to the south and southwest deserves careful investigation. THE WALL-EYE. 8S. VITREUM. Jordan recognizes two subspecies of S#zostedion vitreum—the typical form S. vitreum vitreum, and asmaller, heavier bodied form which is bluer in color and is generally known as the Blue Pike, S. wétreum salmoneum. This, he states, is a local variety in Ohio and southward. It has been considered a distinct species by many naturalists since the days of Rafinesque. The geographical range as well as the classification of the American. Pike-Perches, as the reader must have inferred from what has been said about them in these pages, need to be studied much more exhaustively before a satisfactory essay can be written upon them. Their habits are very im- perfectly understood, and it will be necessary to refer to what is known of their kindred in Europe, in order to give even a partial idea of their life- history. In the Old World, as in the New, there are two well marked species, *A specimen was taken in April, 1887, in the Connecticut river at Portland, as recorded by Professor Wil- liam North Rice. 14 AMERICAN FISHES. the Zander, or Schill, S. /ucioperca (L),* and the Berschick, or Sekret, S. volgensis, (Pallas), the former distributed through a large part of Northern, Eastern and Central Europe, the latter, in the south of Russia, especially in the Dniester and the Volga. The popular nomenclature of the various American forms is in a most perplexing state. In the upper lakes where the true Pike, Esox /ucius is known as the pickerel, Stzostedion vitreum iscalled the <‘ Pike,’’ with such local variations as ‘‘ Blue Pike,’’ ‘‘ Yellow Pike,’’ ‘‘Green Pike’’ and ‘‘Grass Pike.”’ In Ohio, Tennessee and western North Carolina, it robs Zsox of another of its names, and is called ‘‘ Jack.’’? In Lake Erie, however, it is generally known as the ‘‘ Pickerel.’’ The name ‘‘Salmon,’’ is quite generally applied in rivers where no mem- ber of the family Sa/monida is found. This is notably the fact in the tributaries of the Mississippi and Ohio, and in the Susquehanna: hundreds of cases of the capture of salmon, supposed to have developed from fry planted by the fish commissioners, have been reported in the newspapers dur- ing the past ten years, and almost always, when the matter has been inves- tigated, a Pike Perch has been found the innocent cause of the false report. ‘¢ White Salmon”’ is a local name at the Falls of the Ohio; ‘‘ Jack Salmon ’”’ is another bad name. ‘‘Okow,’’ sometimes heard in the lake region is evi- dently a corruption of ‘‘Okun”’ and ‘‘ Okunj,’’ Polish and Russian names for the common perch, introduced by immigrants. The French Canadians on the lakes call it ‘‘Doree,’’ and ‘‘Dory’’ is a name which has found its way into the books. “Glass eye’’ and ‘‘ Wall-eyed Pike’’ are names peculiar to this species, and the former has been perpetuated in the specific name wreum, The name ‘‘ Wall-eyed Pike’’ is coming into favor, and has already replaced some of the misnomers long prevalent. On the Susquehanna, for instance, it is rapidly taking the place of ‘‘Salmon.’’ Ifit must be used, ‘‘ Wall-eye’’ is of course to be preferred to the misleading ‘‘ Wall-eyed Pike.’’ To me it seems a most repulsive and undesirable name, but others find it appro- priate. Listen to an ardent admirer :—‘‘ Look at this beautiful fish! as symmetrical in form as the salmon. Not a fault in his make-up, not a scale disturbed, every fin perfect, tail clean cut, and his great big wall-eyes stand out with that life-like glare so characteristic of the fish.’’ *« Zander, Zant, Sander, Sannat, and Sandart inNorthern Germany, Amaul, Nagemaul, Schiel, Schill and Fogosch in Southern Germany, Sander and Sandel in Austria, Sandre or Sandat in France, Sandart in Denmark, Goes in Sweden, Gyor/ in Norway, Sudak in Russia, Sterkas in Lithuania, Sendacz in Poland, Sulloand Fogas in Hungary. THE PIKE PERCHES. 15 The phrase ‘‘ Wall-eyed’’ is good old English to be sure, but it brings to mind the invective of Lucius reviling the Goth in Titus Andronicus : ‘Say, wall-eyed slave, whither wouldst thou convey This growing image of thy fiend-like face.’ * If ‘* Wall-eye’’ isto be the name of S. grzseum itis evident that ‘‘ Sau- ger’’ must be that of the other species, for it is not claimed by any other fish, and is probably of Indian origin, which is a recommendation. S. canadense is also called in various localities ‘‘ Pickering,’’ ‘‘ Pickerel,’’ “« Horse-fish,’’ ‘‘ Gray-pike ’’ and ‘‘ Ground-pike.’”’ The Pike-Perches resemble the yellow perch in their habits, but though equally vivacious are usually less sprightly and pugnacious, especially when inhabiting quiet waters. The Swedes have a proverb—“‘ As stupid as a Pike- Perch ’’—not particularly applicable to our American species. Their greater size debars their occupancy of the creeks and pools in which perch so often congregate, and it is said that they are rarely found on bot- toms of clay or mud. In lakes they retire to waters of considerable depth, but in running streams are partial to rapids, and whirling pools among the rocks. In Lake Pepin, according to Dr. Estes, they seek out the purest water, and their favorite feeding grounds are at the ends of projecting points where the bottom has been washed clear by the waves, and at the mouths of streams where the current breaks into the still waters of the lake. They delight to run up the larger streams until they encounter an impassa- ble fall or dam, and in rivers where there are no falls they frequent deep roll- ing foot-pools, or deep dark holes, where the current is strong under old logs or drift piles. At the foot of Lake Pepin, just at the point where the still water of the lake begins to flow into the river, they are found in great num- bers, associated with the black-bass and the striped lake-bass. At the junction of the Chippewa with the Mississippi is another great feeding grounds where the Pike-Perches are especially abundant under the great rafts of lumber and accumulation of logs which are always there in summer. Concerning their association, Dr. Estes writes: ‘‘In these waters the Wall- eye + is seldom found associated with any other fish than the sand-pike.”’ { It is true, however, that in swift-rolling waters, especially under falls we find him in company with the black-bass, but I believe that the force of the fall and the tumbling waters in a measure destroy the pugilistic nature of the bass, or he would not suffer the wall-eye to remain in his company. In * Titus Andronicus, Act v, Scene 1. TS. vitreunt. TS. canadense boreun:: this form was named Luczoperca pepinus by Dr. Estes. 16 AMERICAN FISHES. other locations the bass easily drives the wall-eye from his feeding grounds.’’ THE ZANDER. S. LUCIOPERCA. They feed upon every kind of small fish, and do not even spare their own offspring. In the sea-going rivers of Germany they prey largely upon the smelt, and in our own waters upon the various small cyprinoids. Insects, larvee, crawfish and worms are also devoured in great numbers, and even frogs and snakes. Their eggs are from 1 to 1% millimeters in diameter, and light golden yellow in color, and are adhesive like those of the sea-herring, clinging to stones, roots and the stalks of water plants where they are deposited at a depth of from three to ten feet. They begin to spawn when less than a pound in weight, and each female deposits from two to three hundred thousand ova. This great fertility is serviceable, for no fresh water species 1s more subject to the fatalities incident to the spawning season. After storms the shores of lakes are said to be often bordered by windrows of the stranded ova of the Pike-Perch. Dr. Estes well describes the destructive inroads ot sturgeon, cat-fish and suckers upon the spawning beds in Lake Pepin. He estimates that not one-fourth of the eggs remain to be hatched. Wenzel Horack, who has studied the habits of the Zander in Southern Bohemia, finds that the time of spawning is so intimately connected with the temperature of the water and the air that it sometimes begins in March, though it usually occurs in April and May; the season of oviposition con- tinues through the summer and into October. In the north of Germany the Zander spawns in May and June; in southern Germany earlier, begin- ing in April. Eckstrém states that in Sweden they spawn only at night. The fullest description of the breeding of the American species is that by THE PIKE PERCHES. 7 Dr. Estes: ‘‘ They spawn,’’ he writes, ‘‘from the first to the fifteenth of April, in Lake Pepin sometimes earlier. One season the spawning was all done by the third of April, and every fish had left the beds. Just as soon as the lake is well closed over with ice, they leave the deep water and re- sort to the sand-bars where they remain until the spawning time in the spring. It seems a fact that they select and take possession of the spawn- ing beds fully three months before they are needed for use. I have care- fully observed this habit for more than twenty-five years, and each year’s observation is confirmatory. In the first place, we do not take them on these bars in summer, and again two-thirds of all that are taken from the be- ginning of winter to spring are females, proving conclusively that they thus early select these bars as spawning grounds. I have often visited them as early as May, but failed to find the fish, while, from the closing of the lakes to March, they are often found in great numbers. ‘« The beds are made on sandy bars, in water from four to eight feet deep. The bottom must be clean, well-washed sand, free from gravel, rocks, mud or grass. The eggs are mixed with the sand but not covered over, and consequently many of them fall an easy prey to the numerous fishes which are on the hunt for them.’’ * Little is known of their rate of growth. Heckel and Kner state that the Zander grows rapidly with abundant food, especially if it remains in the marshy districts, attaining in the first year a weight of a pound-and-a-half, in the second two pounds-and-a-half, and in the third, from five to six pounds. In the lower waters of the Danube, however, its weight in the first year is only three-quarters of a pound, and in the second, two pounds. They also say that the Zander lives only from eight to ten years. Dr. Estes tells us that in Lake Pepin the yearling fish are only about two inches long, a story which seems much more credible than that told by the Austrian naturalists just quoted. The Wall-eye does not often exceed ten pounds in weight, though giants of thirty-six inches or more, weighing from twenty to thirty pounds, are on record.t The Sauger is smaller, rarely ex- ceeding eighteen inches in length. Zanders sold in the German markets range from one to four pounds in weight ; the Pike-Perch which come to Washington and New York are usually not larger. The Pike-Perch was one of the first species experimented upon by Ameri- can fish culturists. In May, 1857, it is said, Mr. Carl Muller of New York * American Angler Sept. 8, 1883, and St. Paul Pioneer Press, Jan. 1882. +‘* Dr. Buel took one in the Kentucky River which weighed nearly: fifty pounds.’’—Genio C. Scott. ° 18 AMERICAN FISHES. and Mr. Henry Brown of New Haven, artificially fecundated twenty million eggs, which they transferred from Lake Ontario to Lake Saltonstall in Con- necticut. There is no evidence that the eggs ever were hatched.* Seth Green has experimented in the same direction. He states that the eggs may be hatched either in the box which bears his own name, or in the Holton box, and that they require thirty-one days for development in water at a temperature of 34°, though in warmer water they will mature in ten days.t| Max Von dem Borne gives the details of some further experi- ments made in Pomerania, prior to 1881.f It seems probable that whenever it shall be determined to disseminate this fish more widely through American waters, the object may be accom- plished, as has been so often done with the black-bass, by transplanting in- dividuals of considerable size. The Zander was successfully acclimated in England by the Duke of Bedford in 1878. Twenty-eight individuals, averaging about two pounds in weight, were taken across from Germany by Herr Dallmer, a Prussian fishery officer. Elaborate instructions for the transplanting of this fish, and its care in captivity, are given by/my friend Max Von dem Borne, in his ‘‘Fischzucht.’’ Wherever the Pike-Perch is known it is very highly prized. In the Great Lake regions S. vé¢veum ranks next in value to the white fish and lake trout, though S. canadense is not so well esteemed. At Sandusky, Toledo and Cleveland, where all market-fishes are classified in the two categories ‘‘hard-fish’’ and ‘‘soft-fish,’’ the two species are assorted into distinct classes, the Sauger being placed in the inferior, or ‘‘soft’’ group. The flesh is hard, white, flaky and easy of digestion, and has a distinc- tive flavor of its own, which renders it especially available for boiling, though often stuffed and baked. Its capabilities are equal to those of fresh-caught cod or turbot. The Pike-Perch, as it comes to our tables, through the mediation of the fish-mongers, is by no means so palatable as the Zander, when served in the restaurants of Berlin, Dresden or Munich—plain- boiled with a simple sauce of drawn butter. This is not the fault of the fish so much as of the fish-markets. In Germany they are sold alive, and it isa most satisfactory experience to see the clean, plump fishes, eels, carp and Zander, swimming about in the great wooden tubs, of which there are scores in the great stone-paved squares every market morning. «Report U. S. Commissioner of Patents, 1859, p. 227. } Fish Hatching and Fish Catching, 1879, p. 173. j Fischzucht, p. 149. THE PIKE PERCHES. 19 Thave an impression that the delicacy of the Zander in Germany is greatly -due to the fact that the fish are bled, when taken from their tubs to be de- livered to the purchaser. In Sweden the fishermen are said to pierce their tails, to allow the blood to escape and thus blanch the flesh. In the south of Russia one of the Pike-Perches, the Berschick, is exceed- ingly abundant. In former years it was held in low esteem and used in the manufacture of oil, but of late, Astrakhan has been sending annually to Turkey and Greece about eighty millions of pounds of this fish, salted and two or three million pounds of a kind of caviar, called /chastikouz, made for the most part from its roe. Travellers in Austria and Russia tell of the great piles of salted Pike- Perch, stacked up like cord wood along the banks of lakes and rivers. In angling for Pike-Perch, a bass-rod, reel and float are generally used by American anglers. In quiet waters live minnows are preferable for bait, but in rapid currents slices of fish are quite as good, especially if these are trimmed so as to spin nicely. Bischoff, a Bavarian authority, recommends the use of long thin strips, fastened to the hook at one end so as to wriggle like snakes. European anglers generally prefer live bait, with the pater- noster or even with the simple float-line. In fishing in rapids the bait should be allowed to run down with the cur- ‘rent, guiding it as far as may be in and out among the largest rocks. Genio Scott found this method effective at the Little Falls of the Mohawk River. It should always be remembered that the Pike-Perch rarely leaves the ‘bottom, and the line should always be baited with reference to this fact. The artificial fly is sometimes used. A correspondent of the American Angler* wrote sometime ago to that journal that he had fished the streams and lakes of southern Wisconsin for twelve years, and had found no fish -which afforded him better sport than the Pike-Perch. It will take the fly as readily as the brook-trout or the black-bass, and while it will not fight as long as the bass, it furnishes the fly-fisher with a fair amusement, and as a table fish is infinately its superior. With a light rod, weighing from five to nine -ounces, a four foot leader, and a bass-fly, this fish may be readily taken. ‘The angler should whip the white foaming water below a dam, on some frosty morning, using a dark fly, or cast upon the same water toward even- ing with a light fly. He will learn that there are new possibilities for him ‘in the way of sport with a rod. * American Angler, Oct. 7, 1882. 20 AMERICAN FISHES. There is probably no better Pike-Perch fishing in the world than that which may be had in the vicinity of Lake City, Minn., in Lake Pepin and the adjacent waters. The name of Dr. D. C. Estes is as closely identified with the Pike-Perch as that of Norris with the grayling, of Henshall with the black-bass, or of Cholmondeley-Pennell with the pike. His essay pub- lished in the fourth volume of the American Angler,* from which extracts have been made, is the only careful study of the American species and is well worth the attention of naturalists as well as of anglers. The tackle which he recommends for boat or raft fishing consists of a three-jointed bamboo rod, about twelve feet long, a click reel placed in front of the hand and on top of the rod, thirty or forty yards of braided silk or linen line, and a Sproat-bend hook, No. 3-0, tied to a single length of twisted double gut or to gimp. For wading the bars he uses a much longer rod, often a whole bamboo, so pliable that long casts may be made into deep water. More than two- thirds of the fish caught in the main body of Lake Pepin are taken within four rods of the shore, off the ends of the sandy points, in water from five to ten feet deep. The Pike-Perches are never taken in large numbers for use in commerce, except during the spawning season, or immediately before it, and like the perch, they are in the finest condition when full-roed. In Balaton Lake and elsewhere in Hungary, there are extensive fisheries with bag-nets under the ice, and they are caught chiefly in winter in our own lake region. I have never seen a description of the manner in which the Berschick, S. vol- gensis, is captured in Astrakhan, but the statistics indicate that it is car- ried on during the spawning season, since three or four per cent. of the weight of the fish exported is in the form of salted ova. A good type of winter fishing through the ice is that practiced on Lake Pepin. Holes are cut through the ice over the bars from three to ten rods from the shore. The hook is baited with a live minnow. A very simple device is used to signal a bite. A piece of lath about two feet long, with a hole in it a little nearer one end than the other ; through this hole in the lath is run loosely a cross-bar which is laid across this hole on the ice. To the short end of-the lath the line is attached. The moment the bait -is seized by a fish below, the end of the lath flies upright, and so remains as long as the fish pulls. The fisherman seeing it, hastens to rescue his fish. * American Angler IV, 1883, pp. 145, 161, 177, I91. THE PIKE PERCHES. 21 When there are from fifty to one hundred lines out, and the fish are biting freely, it is exciting sport to fly from one quivering signal to another, for it is often that four or six are in the air at one time. The number of fish thus taken every winter is very great, amply supplying local demands, and the fish are much larger than those caught in summer. ‘*As an angler and naturalist,’’ continues Dr. Estes, ‘“it was many years before I became reconciled to catching the wall-eyed pike from off their spawning beds in the winter and spring. Three considerations finally forced reconciliation. (1) There existed in the lake a great number of these fishes, (2) comparatively few could be taken in summer by the ap- proved method of angling, (3) unless taken through the ice a great amount of cheap and wholesome fish-food could not be utilized. ‘‘ Notwithstanding these arguments I cannot but feel condemned for my conclusions, when I see hundreds of these fishes daily, every one filled with spawn enough to stock an inland sea. “¢One other method is resorted to. This is the Indian plan of spearing through the ice from under a teepe or daily shanty. A decoy minnow is kept in motion until the fish is enticed into sight, when the cruel and deadly spear descends and fastens its barbed truss firmly in the flesh. The method is worthy alone of the Indians who invented it.*”’ Closely allied to the Pike-Perches is the log-perch, Percina caprodes, also known as the ‘‘ Rock-fish,’’ and ‘‘ Hog-fish.’’ It is the largest of a large group of little perch-like fishes called ‘‘ Darters’’ or Etheostoma- tide. ‘‘ These fishes’’ writes Jordan, ‘‘ may be described as little perch, re- duced in size and compacted, thus fitted for a life in rocky brooks, where the water is too shallow, swift and sterile to support larger fish. All the Darters are brilliantly colored, and all have a way of lying quiescent on the bottoms, resting on their large fins, and then suddenly darting away for a short dis- tance when disturbed. They are carnivorous, feeding chiefly on insects and crustaceans. Only one of them, Percina caprodes, is large enough to take the hook. This one is often found on the urchin’s string, but it cannot be said to have any economic value. The others are too small for the urchin even, and although, according to Rafinesque, ‘ they are good to eat fried,’ few people think it worth whileto cook them. Darters are found in all fresh waters of the United States east of the Rocky Mountains, but all the species are peculiar to America.”’ *St. Paul Pioneer Press, Jan., 1881, THE STRIPED BASS. Roccus lineatus, The stately Bass, old Neptune’s fleeting Post That tides it out and in from sea to coast. Woop, New England's Prospect: 1634. Y the Greeks, it was so highly esteemed that Archetratus termed it, or one of the two other closely allied species taken near Miletus, ‘‘ the off- spring of the gods:’’ So writes Giinther, concerning the Bass of Europe, the AaBoaF and the Lupus of classical literature, which ascended the Ti- ber, and entered the Acherusian marshes, and gladdened the palates of the gourmets of Rome and Athens. The European Bass, Roccus labrax* is found from the Mediterranean, to Tromsoe in Norway; the American species ranges from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico. The two species are similar in form, but very unlike in color; ours being conspicuously striped, while that of Europe is silvery grey. The American form is the largest, most active, and on account of its greater abundance, by far the more important. In the North it is called the ‘‘Striped Bass,’? in the South the ‘Rock Fish,’’ or the ‘‘Rock.’? The neutral territory where both these names are in use appears to be New Jersey. The fisherman of the Delaware use the latter name, those of the sea-coast the former. Large sea-going individ- . uals are sometimes known in New England by the names ‘‘Squid-hound’’ * Bass, Sea-Perch, White Salmon, Salmon Dace and Sewin, in England, Gafe-mouth in Scotland, Draenog in Wales, (Thismeans hedgehog. Compare with the Breton Dreinee.) Bax and Bars in France, Vax and Dreinee in Brittany, See-Barsch in Germany, Hav-Bars and Bars in Denmark, Spinola, Spigola, Bran~ zine, Varola, Baciola, Ragus and Labrace in Italy, Luben in Croatia, (compare Latin Lupus.) THE STRIPED BASS. 23 and ‘‘Green-head.’’ In old books it is sometimes called the ‘‘Streaked- bass.’’ The generic name, foccus, a barbarous derivative from the common name ofthe fish, originated with Professor Mitchill, who described the species in his ‘‘ Fishes of New York,’’ in 1814. There is still some uncertainty regarding the southern limits of the dis- tribution of this species. In the St. John’s River, Florida, they are very unusual. Though familiar with the fisheries of that region since 1873, I have known of the capture of only two individuals. Mr. Stearns has ob- tained one or two specimens in the vicinity of Pensacola, and gives an ac- count of the degree of their abundance in the Gulf of Mexico. He writes: ‘¢ They are occasionally caught on the northern shores of the Gulf, and are evidently more common about the mouths of the Mississippi River than elsewhere, since they are taken in this region only in seines, and in shallow water their abundance cannot be correctly determined. The earliest account I have been able to obtain of the capture of the Striped Bass in Pensacola Bay is that of Capt. John Washington, of Mystic, Connecticut, who states that in 1850, while seine-fishing from the smack ‘Francis Parkes,’ he surrounded with his seine a large school of fish, which were quite unmanageable; a few of them were saved, and proved to be large Striped Bass, weighing from fifteen to forty pounds. At long inter- vals since, solitary individuals have been taken at various points on the coast. At New Orleansit is foundin the market quiteoften. An eighteen- pound specimen was sold there in March, 188o.’’ In Hallock’s ‘‘Sportsman’s Gazetteer’’ the following statement occurs: “Tt is constantly seen in rivers of fresh water at great distances from the ocean, even as far up the Mississippi as Saint Louis, and it is common in White River, Arkansas, and in all the rivers of the Southern States.’’ While there can be no question that straggling individuals of this species have been taken in the Gulf of Mexico, it seems probable that both Mr. Stearns and Mr. Hallock have been mistaken by the resemblance of this species to the Brassy Bass, Roccus interruptus, which abounds throughout the Lower Mississippi Valley. Canadian authorities inform us that, though the Bass still occur along the New Brunswick and Nova Scotia shores of the Gulf, they are much less abundant and of smaller size than formerly. They have been known to ascend the Saint Lawrence as far as Quebec, and Mr. Roosevelt has seen a 24 AMERICAN FISHES. specimen, a female fish, which was taken in the Niagara River, near Lewiston. The Bass is most abundant in the bays and inlets about Cape Hatteras, in the Chesapeake and Delaware Bay region, and in the pro- tected waters of Long Island and Southern New England. In winter it occurs in considerable numbers in the Altamaha River, and is not unusual in the markets of Charleston, South Carolina. The species was introduced into California some years ago, and Jor- dan reported, in 1880, that several specimens had been captured along the coast. It is particularly abundant in the great estuaries and the open stretches of large rivers. It ascends the Potomac to the Great Falls, twelve miles above Washington, the Hudson to Albany, the Connecticut to Hartford, and the Saint Lawrence to Quebec. Before the erection of the dam in the Susquehanna individuals were taken as high up as Luzerne. It is very curious that Giinther should state that the European species of Bass are ‘‘almost exclusively inhabitants of the sea, entering brackish but never fresh waters, whilst the American species seem to affect principally fresh waters.’’ It is true that America has species of Roccus exclusively fluvia- tile in distribution, but not true that the European form does not ascend rivers. Badham, who is a sufficiently accurate commentator on the classi- cal authorities, remarks: ‘‘ Though born, and in a great measure, bred at sea, it was only those taken in fresh waters which fetched fancy prices, for most rivers were thought to impart flavor and to improve the condition of his solids; but as tawny Thames has a pre-eminence among rivers for the quality of its Perches, so had tawny Tiber for the quality of its Basses. Many went so far as to ignore the existence of this fish from any other stream.’’ The young fish may advantageously be confined in ‘¢ stews’? or artificial enclosures. This was done successfully by Arnold on the Island of Guern- sey, and the experiments of Clift at Mystic, Connecticut, were, I am told, reasonably satisfactory. No one species among the many which they encountered, seems to have astonished the early colonists of America by its abundance and choice qualities so much as did the Bass. Capt. John Smith in his «“‘New Eng- land’s Trials,’’ wrote: ‘«The Basse is an excellent Fish, both fresh & salte, one hundred whereof salted (at market) have yielded 5 pounds. They are so large, the head of one will give a good eater a dinner, & for daintinesse of diet they excell the THE STRIPED BASS. 25 Marybones of Beefe. There are such multitudes that I have seene stopped in the river close adjoining to my house with a sande at one tide so many as will loade a ship of roo tonnes. I myselfe, at the turning of the tyde have seene such multitudes passe out of a pounde that it seemed to me that one mighte go over their backs drishod.’’ Skeptical historians of to-day say that John Smith was a liar. I don’t believe it, and I quote in his support from the words of a ‘‘reverend Di- vine,’’ his contemporary : ‘There is a Fish called a Basse, a most sweet & wholesome Fish as ever I did eat, it is altogether as good as our fresh Sammon, & the season of their comming was begun when we came first to New England in June and so continued about three months space. Of this Fish our Fishers take many hundreds together, which I have seene lying on the shore to my ad- miration; yea, their Netts ordinarily take more than they are able to hall to Land.”’ It is by no means strange that the Virginians believed it possible to es- tablish commercial fisheries which should rival those of Newfoundland. Indeed the bass fishery has, for two hundred and fifty years, been a very important resource of the coast states from Massachusetts to the Carolinas, and to the present day the annual captures in certain localities are enor- mous. The following are extracts from an old note book: In December, 1874, three fishing-gangs near Bridgehampton, N. Y., took over 18,000 pounds in less than a week, Captain Charles Ludlow securing at one set of hisseine 1,672 Bass, or about three and one halftons.* Shortly af- ter this a New London fisherman brought in 419 Bass, 185 of which had been caught with a hook in three hours. Near Norfolk, Va., 1,500 have been taken at a single set of the seine; a few years ago 600 were thus taken which averaged 80 pounds each. The most successful fishery is on the plantation of Dr. W. R. Capehart, in Bertie County, N. C. At the ap- proach of spawning time, and during the continuence of the shad and herring fishery, the bass congregate near the head of Albemarle Sound, where they are taken in great numbers. Dr. Capehart writes: ‘‘ We us- ually catch fron¥ 20,000 to 40,000 pounds of Striped Bass in a season of fifty days,—in March, April, and early May. Occasionaiiy we make an immense catch. In 1858, I tookabout 30,000 pounds in one haul. Many of these weighed 75 to 85 pounds. On the 6th of May, 1876, we made a haul of 820 Bass, weighing 37,000 pounds; 365 of this lot weighed 65 pounds, average, a great many 85 pounds, and a few go pounds. In the *In the first half of June, 1879, one fisherman near Fire Island, New York, caught and sent to New York ‘the following quantities of Bass: Pounds. Pounds. June 2 asi Hg 222 1,298 June 4 ++ 1,255 June 5 + 1,258 June 6 +. 1,560 26 AMERICAN FISHES. next haul we caught 13,000 pounds more, or 50,000 pounds altogether within six hours. This was at the Black Walnut Point fishery. At my Avoca Beach fishery a haul was made in 1844, which was supposed to amount to 100,000 pounds, but this was not accurately counted. Many of the individual fish weighed 95 pounds.’’ A Hessian officer, stationed at New York during the Revolutionary war, recorded that great quantities were at that time sold in the markets. In the year ending March, 1879, over 800,000 pounds of bass were sold in New York, the greatest number being recorded tor November. The Baltimore Gazette, in May, 1834 had this item: ‘‘Some fishermen at Carpenters Point took a single haul, upwards of 800 rock fish ‘of the largest size we ever saw. Some of them weighed upwards of roo pounds, and the most of them averaged from 50 to 100 pounds.”’ The annual consumption of this fish in the United States is estimated at not less than 200,000 pounds. I have found no very reliable evidence to show that the species is de- creasing in numbers. They are not taken by unfair means, nor captured by wholesale upon the spawning beds or in narrow waters. The citizens of New York a century and a quarter ago were apparently more concerned about it than at present, for in 1758 they passed a law prohibiting their sale during the winter months, on account of the ‘‘great decrease of that kind of fish.’’ An offender was to be fined forty shillings and forfeit his fish, and if he were a negro, mulatto or Indian slave, to be punished at the whipping post, unless his fine were paid by his master or mistress. The European Bass is probably quite as abundant on the west coast of Spain and Portugal as anywhere within its range. Like other representatives of the perch family not exclusively marine in habit, the Striped Bass are resident in our waters throughout the year. They appear to avoid a temperature higher than 65° or 70°, and are not sensitive to cold, but their movements are not related to the changes of the seasons, and there is no evidence that they seek to avoid the approach of winter by southward migration like bluefish and Spanish mackerel, or by moving out into the temperate strata of mid-ocean, like shad, salmon, menhaden, and mackerel. Nor is it probable that they voluntarily enter upon a state of torpidity in winter, as some writers have supposed. Sev- eral authorities state that they go into fresh water streams in winter for shel- ter, and De Kay’s opinion was that, entering bays and ponds, they embed themselves in the mud. We know, however, that hibernation ofthis kind is rarely voluntary; as a rule, fish retreat, with a falling temperature, into THE STRIPED BASS. 27 the deepest waters, and never become torpid until they are benumbed by the cold, when they sink to the bottom, and possibly rest on a bed of mud. It is easy, however, to understand that individuals may occasionally be penned up in this way. Mr. Genio C. Scott is responsible for the state- ment that the ponds formed by the back water of the Seconnet River, in Rhode Island, were one winter so full of Striped Bass that they were dis- covered by their dorsal fins projecting from the ice where they had been frozen by too close packing. Most of our Bass doubtless avoid such igno- minious captivity as this by retreating to the deeper parts of the sea, or the rivers, where they remain in a state of partial activity, at least, and have occasional opportunity for feeding. Since 1875 there have come to. my notice instances of their capture in Long Island and Block Island Sounds, and in the Merrimac River in December, in Martha’s Vineyard Sound and the lower part of Hudson River in January. Chesapeake Bay and the Potomac yield considerable quantities all winter. In the rivers of New Brunswick quantities of them are speared through holes in the ice, as they lie close to the bottom. The Bass are most voracious feeders. Whenin the rivers they prey upon small fishes, which are always a favorite, and at this time their exclusive diet. C. C. Abbott, once saw a Bass, a foot in length, devour a dozen silver-finned minnows in four minutes. ‘‘A Rock-fish,’’ writes he, ‘‘ will frequently corner up a small school of minnows, and then pick them up as rapidly and easily as a fowl will pick up grains of corn, and while devour- ing them will keep them in a small place, close together, all the time.’’ They also frequent the surf along the ocean beaches, and near rocky shores at high tide, hunting for crabs, shrimps, squids, and other inverte- brate animals. Oppian and lian tell astounding stories about European Bass, and how they choked themselves to death with their prey. «¢The Lupus’s foible,’’ writes Badham, ‘‘is an inordinate greediness which, when choice fish can be obtained, renders all his cunning of no avail; and his death is often brought about by means of a very insignifi- cant enemy.”’ They spawn in the late spring and early in the summer, some of them in the rivers, others probably at sea, although this has not been definitely ascertained. The European Bass are said to deposit their spawn near the mouths of rivers, in the summer months. From North Carolina to New 28 AMERICAN FISHES. Jersey the spawning time appears to be in May; in New Brunswick in June. Dr, Blanding, many years ago, estimated the number of eggs at 2,248,000. Seth Green puts the figures at 500,000. The experiments of Major Ferguson on Albemarle Sound, in May, 1879, resulted in the artificial fecundation and hatching of many thousands of the eggs. These were smaller than shad eggs, but after fecundation they in- creased considerably in size, and assumed a light green color. They hatched in about twenty-four hours. About 400,000 young fish were libe- rated in Salmon Creek. Mr. Holton made similar experiments at Weldon, N. C., in May, 1873. He observed that the eggs did not come to maturity until the fourth or fifth day. This difference in the time of hatching was possibly due to the cooler temperature of the water in the Roanoke river. In the North Carolina waters they spawn in early May; in the Potomac also in May. Dr. C. C. Abbott for five successive years found in the Dela- ware River young an inch long in the second week of June. Professor Leith Adams observed bass spawning in the St. Johns River, N. B. about the middle of June. Their rate of growth is not certainly known. Dr. Abbott’s inch-long fry of June measured four and one-half inches by the middle of October. Great quantities of young fish, from five to nine inches long, are taken in the Potomac in February and March. I believe them to be the young of the previous year. Capt. Gavitt, of Westerly, Rhode Island, has caught Bass in June that weighed from one-half to one pound, put them into a pond and taken them out in the following October, when they weighed six pounds. The aver- age size of this fish probably does not exceed twenty pounds. In the Poto- mac, Hudson, and Connecticut rivers the largest seldom exceed thirty or forty pounds, though in the Potomac fifty-pound fish are not unusual. The Fish Commission has for several years had a standing offer of a reward for a sixty-pound fish from the Potomac, but none has been forthcoming as yet. Dr. Henshall states that he once saw a Striped Bass weighed in the Baltimore fish market, which went several pounds over one hundred. In 1860 one was taken at Cuttyhunk, which weighed 104 pounds. The largest on record was one weighing one hundred and twelve pounds, taken at Orleans, Massachusetts, in the Town Cove. Such a fish must have measured at least six feet in length. A fairly proportioned Bass thirty-six inches long should weigh at least eighteen pounds. THE STRIPED BASS. 29 In Great Britain a Bass of ten or twelve pounds is considered a fine example, but there are instances on record of individuals weighing 22 and 28 pounds, and those in Southern Europe do not appear to grow much larger. Few of our food-fish are more generally popular. The small ones, weighing less than a pound are fried, and are excellent pan-fish. Those from one to three pounds, are recommended for broiling, and from five to eight pound-fish are considered the best to boil. The very large ones are cut in transverse sections for boiling, and never lack purchasers. De Voe says that Bass are in the best condition in September, October and No- vember, THE EUROPEAN BASS. . In Great Britain the Bass is not highly esteemed, but in France, Spain, Italy and Greece, is considered one of the finest of fishes. ‘“‘He is a gallant fish and a bold biter,’’ said Frank Forester; and Genio Scott puts him first among the game-fishes of coast and estuary. The Striped Bass is deservedly a favorite with the angler, whether he fishes with shrimp or clam bait in the brackish creeks, entices with the artificial ‘fly at the Little or Great Falls of the Potomac, trolls in the swift tideways, tolls with menhaden bait from the stages at Pasque and Cuttyhunk, still- baits in the bays, or ‘‘heaves and hauls’’ in the wild surf of the outer shores. The last mentioned method is perhaps the most peculiar, and de- serves a few words of description. In Scott’s ‘‘ Fishing in American Waters,’’ and in Roosevelt and Green’s ‘‘ Fish Hatching and Fish Catch- ing,’’? may be found descriptions of the various kinds of tackle used in Bass-fishing, and graphic, breezy stories of adventurous days passed in this pursuit. Mr. Scott does not hesitate to claim for his favorite the first 30° AMERICAN FISHES. place on the list of American game-fishes. After devoting several chap- ters to other methods of capture, he continues: ‘‘ Casting menhaden bait for Striped Bass, from the rocky shores of the bays, estuaries, and islands along the Atlantic coasts constitute the highest branch of American ang- ling. It is, indeed, questionable—when considering all the elements which contribute to the sum total of sport in angling—whether this method of Striped Bass fishing is not superior to fly-fishing for salmon, and if so, it outranks any angling in the world. The method is eminently American, and characteristic of the modern angler by its energy of style, and the ex- ercise and activity necessary to success.’’ The rods used in this kind of fish- ing must not exceed nine feet in length, and are very light, often less than a pound in weight, the lines of linen or hemp, two to three hundred yards long, must be of the utmost strength and elasticity, the reels must represent the perfection of the tackle-maker’s skill, triple-multipliers, with jewel- mounted wheels and delicately adjusted balance-cranks. . The unsuspecting Basses are lured in by the use of a toll bait of chopped menhaden, which is cast upon the water until an oily surface or slick is produced which ex- tends halfa mile or more from the shore. This attracts the fish, which swim toward the angler, stopping now and then to seize the floating bits of fish. When they come within reach of the fisherman’s line a strong hook, deli- cately baited with a bit of menhaden, pork, or parchment, is quickly offered them. ‘‘ With a dexterity which practice alone can assume,’’ writes Mr. Hallock, ‘‘ the experienced anglers carefully sway the rod until the squid describes its slowly moving circle around the head, and then, by a quick, inexplicable movement, cause it to dart like an arrow, straight out far over the sea, and the reel whizzes and whirls until it seems to flash fire, and you wait long and patiently for the cessation of the hum, which indicates that the squid has dropped full one hundred feet, perhaps one hundred and fifty feet away. The pleasure and excitement of capture are intense, and often the struggle lasts for an hour when the fish is large.’’ On Pasque and Cuttyhunk, two of the Elizabeth Islands, lying be- tween Buzzard’s Bay and Martha’s Vineyard Sound, are several club-houses, sustained by wealthy gentlemen from New York who resort to this region in summer to enjoy this amusement. Long stages project from the rocks into the sound and bay, and from these the anglers cast their squids and play their fish, attended by their ‘‘ baiters,’’ who do their full share of labor in finding bait, baiting hooks, and gaffing the fish. Ill-natured rumor THE STRIPED BASS. 31 whispers that for every pound of Bass brought to shore by these hard-work- ing club-men, hundreds of pounds of menhaden are cast into the sea. An obliging correspondent furnishes the following description of one of these clubs: ‘The Island of Cuttyhunk is about sixteen miles from New Bedford, at the extreme southwesterly boundary of Buzzard’s Bay, whose foaming billows wash its northern shore, while the ocean itself beats upon thesouth. The Cuttyhunk Club own about three hundred acres of land, and have the exclusive right to fish on the shores and in the ponds of the island. When the club was first formed they stocked one of the ponds on the island with black bass, and these have multiplied so plentifully that they are now caught in large numbers. No fishing was allowed for three years from the time the pond was stocked. Perchand trout are also plenty in ponds on the island. Twenty-six fishing stands have been built at Cuttyhunk, and they extend completely round the island. These stands are built upon prominent rocks, and are supported above the breakers by iron rods. Foot bridges, supported in the same way, are built from the shore to the stands. The stands are all named or numbered, and are drawn for every night by the mem- bers of the club. A member drawing a stand can fish from it the next day, or it can be used by any one else by his permission. The stands bear such names as ‘ Nashawena Point,’ ‘ Canepitset,’ ‘Old Water Line,’ ‘ Cove Point, ‘Little Bass,’ ‘Big Bass,’ and ‘Gull Rocks.’ The stands are all removed after the season is over, to be put up again the next year. ‘Central Park’ seats have this season been placed on the bluffs round the island at con- venient points, from which to watch the fishing at each stand, so that mem- bers who are not lucky enough to secure favorite stands can sit with ease and enjoy the sport of their fellow-members. The favorite fishing is for Striped Bass, and, during the best of the season, the sport is commenced as early as three o’clock in the morning. A record is kept at the club house of the daily catch, by whom caught, where taken, on what station, the number of fish, weight, and date. Some members of the Cuttyhunk Club also belong to the West Island Club, which controls only five acres of land. The West Island Club is limited to thirty members, with an ad- mission fee of $1,000.”’ Professor Leith Adams has drawn a vivid pen-picture of Indian Bass-fish- “ing in New Brunswick. ‘“‘The Indians (on the St. John’s River) pursue them at spawning time. The scene on a beautiful summer afternoon is extremely ex- citing. There a few canoes containing remnants of the Melicita tribe may be seen dropping quietly down the river, each with an Indian in the prow, spear in hand, and another at the stern paddling gently; then a sudden splash close by calls for his utmost exertions, and like an arrow the birch-bark skiff is shot towards the spot, when the man in front, rest- ing on his knees, with much force and dexterity sends his three-pronged harpoon straight on the fish.”’ THE WHITE BASS. ROCCUS CHRYSOPS, THE WHITE BASS AND THE YELLOW BASS. Subtle, Has he bit? Has he bit? Face. And swallowed too, my Subtle. I have given him line, and now he plays i’ faith. Subtle, And shall we twitch him? Face. Through both the gills. Ben. Jonson, The Alchemist, 1611, Act. ii, Sc. 1. HE White Bass, or Striped Lake Bass, Roccus chrysops, is often con- founded with the Striped Bass, which it closely resembles. It may easily be distinguished by the presence of thirteen, instead of eleven, soft rays in the anal fin, as well as by the greater size of its scales, of which there are about fifty-five rows, instead of sixty or more. It is most abundant in the Great Lake region, although it has a wide distribution in the Ohio and upper tributaries of the Mississippi, and is found in many streams farther south. It frequents chiefly the lakes and ponds and the deeper parts of the rivers. It feeds upon minnows and the like, usually taking the hook readily, and is considered gamy by the angler. Asa food-fish it ranks high, being little inferior to the black- bass. Its usual weight is from one to three pounds. The White Bass is said to be an excellent fish for cultivation in artificial ponds, Like most of its relatives, this species spawn in late spring. «It is often taken in the Ohio River,’’ writes Jordan, ‘‘ and frequents chiefly deep or still waters, seldom ascending small streams. THE WHITE BASS AND THE YVELLOW BASS. 33 This is doubtless the Silver Bass of Canada (/e Sz/ver Bass du Canade), the details of whose introduction into France, and successful propagation by M. Carbonnier, from 1877 to 1879, are recorded by that experimenter in the Bulletin of the Society of Acclimation for 1881.* The species at one time attained to commercial importance in the Lake Region, but has now greatly decreased in numbers. It is especially ad- mired by the anglers of Lake Pepin. Another species which closely resembles the Striped Bass is the Morone interrupta, generally known as the Yellow Bass, but sometimes called THE YELLOW BASS. MORONE INTERRUPTA. Bar-fish in the South. It is found throughout the lower course of the Mississippi, ascending the tributaries which are deep and sluggish, but not running past rapids or into the upper courses of the rivers. Jordan states that its range extends up the Ohio to the mouth of the Wabash or beyond, though it does not seem to be common anywhere except in the Lower Mississippi. It probably enters salt water, but of this we have no certain information. It is taken in considerable numbers in the regions where found, and is graded with the White Bass, which it much resembles in size and color. Little is known in regard to its habits. ‘The criterion by which it may be distinguished from the White Bass is the low membrane connecting the two dorsal fins. Its color is yellow, not silvery, and the black stripes are very prominent. * Bulletin Mensuel dela Société d’ Acclimation, viii, No. 2, p. 10. 3 34 AMERICAN FISHES. In Louisiana this species is called ‘‘ Bar-fish’’ probably on account of its stripes. ‘* The appellation,’’ says Hallock, ‘‘is equally appropriate as applied to its habit of congregating in great numbers upon the shoals of clear water branches and bayous which empty into the Mississippi. The minnows and shiners seem’to seek the bars at night. In early morning the water is alive with Bar-fish and trout (black-bass) in pursuit of the minnows until it fairly boils. This is the time of day to go fishing.’’ THE WHITE PERCH. Morone americana. Nor let the Muse, in her award of fame, Illustrious Perch, unnoticed pass thy claim, Prince of the prickly cohort, bred in lakes, To feast our boards, what sapid boneless flakes Thy solid flesh supplies ! though overfed, No dantier fish in ocean’s pastures bred Swims thy compeer. Ausonius, The Moselle. ane apostrophe of Ausonius was prophetic, for his words apply much more exactly to the species of dAZorone now under discussion than to the Perca which the poet had in mind. This fish, closely related to the Yellow Bass, occurs in brackish water in the mouths of rivers, and even, in many instances, in fresh-water ponds, where it had become land-locked, and all along the coast from Georgetown, S. C., to Nova Scotia. Dr. Yarrow states that it abounds in the Tar and Neuse Rivers, N. C. In the Chesapeake and tributary streams it is ex- -ceedingly abundant. It also abounds in the lakes and streams of the St. John River, New Brunswick, and in the vicinity of Halifax, Nova Scotia. It has been claimed by certain observers in Florida that White Perch were formerly abundant in that region, and the marketmen of New Orleans ‘state that they were common in Lake Pontchartrain until the Bonnet Carré Crevasse changed the water from salt to fresh. Mr. Stearns and Prof. Jordan having investigated the subject, are of the opinion that these ‘theorists are mistaken. 36 AMERICAN FISHES. The habits of this fish have been but little observed ; in fact, it has been the custom of nearly all writers on game fishes to speak lightly of it. It found an earnest advocate in Mr. Thaddeus Norris, who, after protest- ing strenuously against the statement of various writers that it is rarely brought to market for food; that it is only fit for chowder; that it is not of sufficient importance to merit particular notice, and so on, goes on to state, what is undoubtedly true, that in season the White Perch is he pan- fish, excelled by none in the Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, Norfolk and Richmond markets; and he might have added, had he been writing at the present time, of the New York market also, for there is, probably, no fish of its size which is more universally popular throughout the Eastern States than the White Perch. In a single paragraph, Mr. Norris, who, making no professions of scientific skill, has been one of our best observers of fishes, has given almost the only reliable information which has ever been collected regard- ing this species. ‘‘ Its most natural habitat is in fresh tidal rivers, where it is found on flat clay and muddy bottoms, and in shallow water. It is frequently found far above the terminus of the tide, and is often more abundant in fresh than in brackish water in the season of the year when sought for by anglers. This fish, when found in salt water creeks, is darker in color, but there is no specific difference. The White Perch is a congener of the magnificent rock-fish, and is frequently found feeding in the same place and in hiscompany. Its average length is eight or nineinches ; it is not often more than twelve, though in rare instances it is found four- teen inches long. White Perch hibernate in the deep waters of our bays, and ascend the fresh tidal rivers soon after the ice and snow-water have run off. They feed greedily on the spawn of other fish, particularly that of the shad; on insects, crabs, minnows and on the migratory schools of young eels which are found in the months of April and May in great numbers at any rapid or dam obstructing the upward flow of the tide. Perch usually spawn in May, and then resort to deeper waters to recuperate, and all summer long are found by the angler, ever swimming around the deep-sunk pier or the timbers of the rickety old bridge, snapping at shrimps or chasing the minnows ; at flood-tide high up amongst the water- lilies, and never refusing a bait, if of the right sort and properly presented.’’ Dr. C. C. Abbott has added some important observations. He found female fish heavy with apparently ripe ova as late asJune 10. The largest THE WHITE PERCH. 37 specimens of White Perch taken in the Delaware weighed, respectively, one pound nine ounces, one pound thirteen ounces, and two pounds one ounce. These were caught in a shad net in May, 1865, at the fishery opposite Trenton. The average adult fish may be said to measure eight inches and weigh from seven to nine ounces. He continues: ‘I believe, for reasons to be given, that the growth of the young is very rapid, and that the August Perch are young, hatched late in the preceding May and -\pril; in June these August Perch measuring about two-and-a-half to three inches in length. . . . Ishould judge that spawning occurred between May ro and June to, usually nearer the former than the latter date. This is based on the fact of having gathered very young fish, the age of which I guessed from the general condition and amount of develop- ment of the specimens. After the middle of June the White Perch are found in localities widely different; even waters with a dense growth of lily and river weed are found to contain them in apparent health and vigor—spots where the Rock fish could not live a day. Still later in the summer, as the young Perch become quite strong and of some size, the river, although in and above tide-water, fairly teems with them. At this season they go in schools, sometimes of large size. I have known of twelve, fifteen and twenty dozen August Perch being taken with a line in as short a time as from three to five hours. Fishing in this way a line with half a dozen hooks is used, and worms, sturgeon spawn or live min- nows are used as bait. These schools of small Perch I supposed to be broods of the preceding May, and that they kept together until late in November. They pass down to the salt water and there separate. Larger adult fish are not as restless as these smaller ones, and are found in deeper water, and usually in the tide-waters. In their feeding habits the White Perch agree very closely with the rock-fish. In all their habits, in fact, the two fish are much alike, and in the Delaware they are always asso- ciated, the most noticeable difference in their habits being the ability of the Perch to remain and thrive in warmer waters than the rock-fish is ever found frequenting.”’ Harris, in his ‘‘Game Fish of Pennsylvania,’’ writes: ‘‘ When taken with a skittered minnow or bright fly on a light rod, we do not hesitate to class as a game fish the White Perch. Large individuals are caught on the edges of the splatterdocks and in the eddies around the piers of the bridges spanning the numerous creeks that flow into the Delaware, the bait being alive minnow. At night, in the incoming tide, large Perch 38 ' AMERICAN FISHES. are caught in great numbers with the worm, in the waters below and above Philadelphia. The angler sits in the stern of the boat and fishes witha short rod and line. Perch caught by the above methods run large and are gamy, and those caught on rod and reel at Pennsgrove, Salem and other places further down the bay give great sport on light-running tackle. I see nothing to commend in the method of fishing for Perch as practiced by the ‘‘ bow-line’’ fishers for the fingerlings which swarm in great schools. upon the bars of the river above and below the tide-waters of the Dela- ware. It takes a basketful to make a breakfast for a small family. I have seen and counted a catch of 1,300 small Perch made with worm bait by three lines in two hours’ fishing at Titusville, N. J., nine miles above tide-water.’’ It seems very strange that no attempt should have been made to intro- duce the White Perch into Europe. It would thrive admirably in the estuaries and sluggish streams, and would be far more worthy of the atten- tions of the British angler than various species of so-called ‘‘ coarse fish ’’ which he now pursues. It would be a great boon to the easy going British angler of the Waltonian type, to whom the pleasure of the rural scenery and quiet outing is of more moment than the strength and vo- racity of the fishes which chance to encounter his lures. See eS $<4 eras ercesr se e SERS SS Rees sa =3 23 THE SEA BASSES. So gaat het hier: dat’s Werelts overvloed, (Waar mee de Mensch word koninglijk gevoed Door gulle gunst des milden gevers) doet Hem vaak vergeeten. Steenbrassem, Steur en Dartien en Knor-haan, En Zee-Baars die geen vorst sal laten slaan En Kabellau; en Salm, die (wel gebraan). Is vet, en voedig. Jaxon STEENDAM, 2” Loufvan Niew Nederland, 1661. 667 HE SEA BASS is another gentleman among his finny comrades,’’ wrote Frank Forester. He belongs to the family Serranid@, the members of which are similar in form and habits to the Perches, from which they are distinguished by certain anatomical characters, scarcely tangible to persons not expert in ichthyology. This family contains a very large number of species, some of which are to be found in all the tropi- cal and temperate seas. On our Atlantic coast there are over twenty kinds, while in California, there are four, at least, which are of economic importance. : The Sea Bass is also known south of Cape Hatteras as the ‘‘ Blackfish,”’ and is the most important species on our coast. In the Middle States the Sea Bass is called ‘‘ Black Will,’’ ‘‘Black Harry,’’ and ‘‘ Hannahills ;’’ about Newport and New Bedford, ‘‘ Bluefish,’’ and at New Bedford also, “‘Rock Bass.’? Curiously enough, the Southern name, ‘“‘ Blackfish,’’ is in use at Oak Bluffs, on Martha’s Vineyard, and, it is said, also in New Jer- 40 AMERICAN FISHES. e ~ sey. In Gill’s ‘‘ Catalogue of the Fishes6f the East Coast,’’ and in Storer’s ‘« Fishes of Massachusetts,’’ I find the Statement that it is known as the ‘Black Bass.’’ Ifthis was true atany time, the usage has since undergone a very considerable change. The sp€cies should be carefully distinguished from the Blackfish of Long Island Sound, which is the tautog, a member of a very different family. / Under the name Sea Bass, aré included two species, so similar in gene- ral appearance that it is cae necessary to discriminate between them,— so similar, indeed, that for a score of years after the differences had been pointed out by Holbrook, the Carolina ichthyologist, naturalists refused to believe in their existence.* The habits of the two are so similar that they will be treated as one throughout this essay. The combined range of the two species embraces the Cape Ann, Massa- chusetts, and the northern part of the Gulf of Mexico. It has not yet been determined where the dividing line in their distribution should be drawn. It is probable, however, that it is somewhere in the neighborhood of Hat- teras, since the atvardus type prevails about Charleston, where indeed Dr. Garden obtained the specimens which he sent to Linnzus to name and de- scribe. There is doubtless a neutral ground occupied by both species, and the determination of its limits would be a capital subject for some enterpris- ing angler to investigate. The extreme southern limit of the Sea Bass appears to be the sandy coast of Texas, where Jordan ascertained that it is rarely if ever seen. Silas Stearns informs us that it is rather abundant in certain rocky locali- ties along the Gulf coast of Florida. In Pensacola Bay it is seen about -the piles of stone ballast that le in shoal water, and also at sea on the fishing grounds near the entrance. It also occurs in St. Andrew’s, St. Joseph’s, and Apalachicola Bay ; and to the southward, where there is more or less rocky bottom, showing either in reefs or in channel-beds, it is found in abundance. In the vicinity of St. Mark’s, Cedar Keys, and St. Mar- tin’s Reef are other prolific Bass reefs. It has only recently been found to occur north of Cape Cod. Previous to 1878, there were on record only four instances of its occurence east of Nantucket, but in the summer of 1878 several were taken in the Milk Is- land weir, off Gloucester. This weir, which lies on the west side of Milk * §, furvus, the northern form, has the air bladder simple, and the pectoral as long as the ventral fin; S. atrarius, the southern form has the air bladder sacculated, and the pectoral longer than the ventral. From photograph of 12 Striped Bass caught olf 8. W. Bridge, Newport, in two hours and five minutes with rod and line. Average weight, 435, pounds, THE SEA BASSES. 41 Island, almost under the shadow of the twin light-houses of Thatcher’s Is- land, waylaid many southern species never before known to enter Massa- chusetts Bay, among them the kingfish and the Spanish mackerel. At some future time the Sea Bass may become abundant in these more north- erly waters. Like the scuppaug, the Spanish mackerel, and the bluefish, it was at one time almost unknown to New England. In the ‘ Catalogue of the Fishes of Connecticut,’’ published in 1842 by Linsley, the species is described as a great novelty. However strange to the people of Connecti- cut at this time, it is said by Storer to have been so abundant, between 1850 and 1860, that fifty or sixty vessels were accustomed to obtain full fares in summer about the Vineyard Sound. This statement is probably somewhat of an exaggeration. The ‘‘ Zee-Baars’’ mentioned in the verse of Steendam’s poem, ‘‘In Praise of New Netherland,’’ which stands at the head of this chapter may or may not have been Centropristis. Mr. Murphy, in his translation, gives the exact equivalent of the Dutch words. :— ‘‘The bream, and sturgeon, drumfish and gurnard The Sea-Bass which a prince would not discard The cod and salmon cooked with due regard, Most palatable.” Schoepf, writing of the fishes of New York in 1787, stated that the ««Blackfish’’ was rarely brought to New York, and the species does not appear to have been at all prominent among the New England food fishes of the last century. A diligent search through the works of the early writers fails to bring to light any definite allusions. It would be interest- ing to know whether there has actually been an increase in their abund- ance, or whether the apparent increase has been, as with the Spanish mackerel, due to the introduction of new modes of fishing, or the discovery of new fishing grounds. The favorite haunts of the Sea-Bass are among the rocky ledges and “¢spots of ground’’ which are so abundant in the bays and sounds, and are scattered at intervals along the outer Atlantic coast. Among the boulders and ledges, full of cracks and crevices, which mark the position of these localities, there grow, in the greatest profusion, invertebrates of every order. A haul of the dredge over a good fishing ground often brings up tens of thousands of minute animals. A hundred species have often been recorded from a single dredging by the Fish Commission. Upon such feeding grounds the Sea-Bass congregate in great herds, rooting 42 AMERICAN FISHES. and delving among the holes, in search of delicacies. The best Bass grounds in the North are usually covered by water twenty to fifty feet deep, while off Charleston they are from sixty to one hundred and twenty feet below the surface. Throughout the whole region of its distribution the species usually occurs. near the shore, and also in spots of medium depth, where suitable feeding- grounds occur. In the Gulf of Mexico they are often found in very shoal water ; indeed, all along the Southern coast the young fish are found close in to the shore, and I have seen a great many taken with hook and line from the sea-wall at St. Augustine. The temperature of the water affected by this species and by the red snapper corresponds very closely, and in most instances is probably not less than 50°, though on the coast of Con- necticut and New York it may be slightly lower. The Sea-Bass is a bottom-feeding and a bottom-loving fish, and, it may be said, rarely comes to the surface. This rule has exceptions, however, for Mr. Charles Hallock writes: ‘‘Although the Sea-Bass is a bottom fish, yet once on an outward-bound voyage to the southward of the Gulf Stream we made fast to a ship’s lower mast, found drifting on the surface, which was covered with clams and ba.nacles and surrounded with Sea-Bass. We caught all that we wanted and cut loose. They weighed from five to twelve pounds each, and were all male fish.’’ Whether or not those occurring in northern waters migrate southward in winter, or merely go into deeper water, is not yet ascertained. According to Capt. Edwards. and Capt. Spindle, they make their appearance in the Vineyard Sound from the rst to the zoth of May upto the roth of June. Capt. Spindle states that no stragglers are ever seen in April. Capt. Edwards declares, on the other hand, that they are found in that region in the winter, and I find in my note-book a statement that they have been taken in the Vine- yard Sound in the winter by Thomas Hinkley and others. A careful study of their habits would form an important contribution to zodlogy. They are somewhat sluggish in their habits. The temperature of the body is low, being very nearly that of the surrounding water, and their digestion is slow. Although very eager feeders at times, they seem much less fat than bluefish of the same size, and their growth is less rapid. They seldom leave the bottom, and there is as yet no evidence that cold weather drives them far from their summer haunts. They retreat, in all probability, into water of greater depth, where they pass the winter in a somewhat THE SEA BASSES. 43 torpid state. Like the tautog, they appear to have a habit of lying under loose stones and in cavities among the rocks. I have observed this habit in the tanks of the New York Aquarium, my attention having been called to their movements by Mr. Fred. Mather. In the South they are feeding all the year. I have seen them taken in February on the Snapper Banks at the mouth of the St. Johns, at St. Augustine, and along the wharves of Charleston. The food of this species, as of its associates upon the same grounds, consists of crabs, shrimps, squids and small fish. It is stated that the intestines of mackerel and the stomachs of menhaden are considered the best bait about Wood’s Holl, Mass., while further south, shrimps and pieces of the flesh of fishes, such as small sharks, are frequently used. They are voracious feeders and readily attracted ; their mouths are tough and leathery, so that when once hooked they are not easily lost. Scott states that their feeding time is during the lull of the waters between the turn of the tides, when they are easily taken by the angler. _ In the North the Sea-Bass occupies the feeding grounds in company with the scuppaug or porgy, the flounder and thie tautog, while in the South its associates are the red snapper and the various species of grunt, and on the inshore grounds, among the rocks, it occurs in company with the sheeps- head and the king-fish. The breeding time is believed to occur in July and August. Mr. Dyer, of Naushon, states that the Sea-Bass, when they come into the pounds in the spring, are full of spawn, ready to shoot. Young fish, one or two inches long, are abundant among the eel-grass along the shores of Southern New England. In the Gulf of Mexico, according to Stearns, they spawn in early summer, and the young are caught in July and August. The average size of the fish in New England is about one-and-one-half pounds., A Sea-Bass nine inches long weighs about five ounces ; ten inches long, six to ten ounces ; eleven inches long, nine to twelve ounces ; twelve inches long, ten to sixteen ounces ; while the length of a three-pound fish varies from eighteen to twenty inches. They occasionally attain the weight of four or five pounds, but this is unusual. In the South they are, as a rule, much smaller than in the North. This is especially the case in the Gulf of Mexico. In these waters, and along the southern part of the South Atlantic coast, they rarely exceed a pound in weight. Large male fish are remarkable on account of the presence of a large hump upon the 44 AMERICAN FISHES. top of the head. This is particularly prominent during the breeding season, and at this time the colors of the whole body are much brighter. The colored plate of this species, drawn by Mr. Kilburn for Scribner’s ‘‘Game Fishes of the United States,’’ represents a large male at the breeding season, the only picture of this kind which has ever yet been made. The Sea-Bass is of interest to fish culturists as being the first marine fish upon which the experiment of artificial propagation was tried in this country. This was in June, 1874, when Mr. Mather fertilized a number of eggs at the station of the United States Fish Commission at Noank, Conn. These eggs were placed in shad boxes and were watched for several days, as they passed through the early stages of segmentation. A storm interfered with the completion of the experiment, and it has never been repeated. The Sea-Bass is without many rivals as a chowder fish, and for boiling. Its fleshis firm, flaky, and very sweet. The hardness of the flesh makes it desirable for packing in ice, and prevents rapid deterioration in hot weather. The head is so large that half the weight of the fish is lost in the process of dressing for the table. There are excellent fishing grounds on the Savannah Bank and others near Charleston, at the mouth of the Chesapeake and the Delaware Bays, off the coast of New Jersey and the entrance to New York harbor and in Long Island Sound, and Buzzard’s Bay. The latter are frequented in summer by ten or twelve Connecticut smacks, which purvey for the New York market. The fish are carried in the wells of the smacks to Noank or New London, where they are kept alive in floating cars until needed for shipment. It is one of the chief recommendations of this fish that it is so hardy and tenacious of life that it can be kept any length of time in confinement. Thousands of them may be seen, swimming in perfect health in the cars, crowded together until their sides are in contact, and thus they are often kept for weeks. Before they are placed in the wells the fisherman has recourse to the expedient of thrusting an awl into the side of the fish so as to puncture the air-bladder. Otherwise they would float on the surface, on account of the expansion of air in the bladder after the removal of the pressure of the weight of water under which they are accustomed to live. Several of the Noank smacks are usually employed from November to April in fishing for Sea~-Bass on the Southern coast. These supply the Charleston market. THE SEA BASSES. 45 In summer several steamers make daily trips from New York to the fishing banks off Sandy Hook and Long Branch. They are patronized by thousands of amateur fisherman, who seldom fail to bring back trophies of Sea-Bass and scuppaug. In the summer of 1832, Captain Lyman Bebe of the fishing smack Mary, of New York, discovered a notable fishing bank about twenty miles to the eastward of Sandy Hook. 1832 was the year of the ‘‘ great cholera,’’ and its progress was the one topic of conversation, and Captain Bebe named his new-found fishing ground the ‘‘ Cholera Banks.’’ Another famous reef, known as the ‘‘ Fishing Banks,’’ extends from off the Highlands of Navesink, past Long Branch, to a point about opposite Squan Beach. Both of these are favorite resorts for New Yorkers, who visit them on the small excursion steamers. An artist, visiting the Cholera Banks thus records his experience: “‘Starting so early in the morning that his eyes are still heavy with unexpended sleep, he soon finds himself on the steamer in company with a hundred more fellow passengers, some of whom are heavy-eyed and in- clined to grumble about the hour of starting, while others are cheerful, and full of excitement at the prospect of the day’s sport. Down the bay, through the Narrows, across the lower bay, and out to sea, steams the little craft on which they are embarked. Past the red light-ship, and twenty miles due east from Sandy Hook, she runs, and then begins the search for the Banks. The pilot takes ranges by several of the big hotels, of which so many have been erected during recent years along the south shore of Long Island ; a man in the bows takes soundings; and if the day be clear, the steamer is soon brought to anchor directly above the reef, and a hun- dred eager lines are dropped overboard. “¢Once at anchor the fun and trouble begin together. It is fun to catch fish; but seasickness is among the saddest of human experiences, and many of those who have bravely endured the pitching to which the steamer has been treated ever since she left Sandy Hook succumb at once to the motion that succeeds it as soon as she comes to anchor, and rises and falls with regular, ceaseless monotony on the long swells. «¢Apart from these and ridiculing their wretchedness, stand the profession- als and toughened amateurs, smoking short pipes, hauling in fish, making cruel jokes upon the condition of the novices, and thoroughly enjoying them- selves. They bait their hooks with hard-shell clams, skillfully toss their leaden sinkers far out from the steamer’s side, let run fourteen fathoms of line, and haul in Sea Bass, black-fish, flukes, rock cod, weak fish, porgies, or whatever else comes to hand. Once in a while a line goes whizzing through the water with a wild rush, there is a protracted struggle, and an ugly customer in the form of a shark either breaks the line and escapes, or is hauled on board amid much rejoicing. 46 AMERICAN FISHES. The first catch of the day is always watched for with the greatest interest, for upon it depends the ownership of a number of small pools that have been made up among the passengers. Other points to be scored are the largest catches of the day in numbers and weight, and the catching of the heaviest single fish. Late in the afternoon the anchor is lifted, lines are drawn in, and the steamer is headed toward home. Then comes a time of great interest. The fish are cleaned, sorted, weighed, examined with care, passed around for inspection, and commented upon. Special lots are laid aside for home consumption and for distribution among friends ; and frequently those who have made the large catches, and have more than they know how to dis- pose of otherwise, raffle them off or present them to the crew of the steamer.’’* This species is captured in great quantities in the pounds and traps of Rhode Island and Southern Massachusetts. Its distribution is wide, many of its haunts are unfrequented by fishermen, and it is probable that its im- portance as a food fish will increase in years tocome. In 1880, over 350,000 pounds were sold in New York city. There is a small species, Serranus trifurcus, resembling the Sea-Bass which has been found only in the vicinity of Charleston, S. C., and Pen- sacola, Fla., where it is called the ‘‘ Rock Black-fish.’’ It occasionally finds its way to the Charleston markets. The Squirrel fish, Serranus fascicularis, is a beautifully colored species, usually to be seen in the markets of Charleston, north of which locality it has not been found. The following paragraph from Holbrook’s ‘‘ Ich- thyology of South Carolina,’’ contains all that has been observed regard- ing its habits: ‘‘ Little can be said of the habits of this fish. It, however, appears in our waters in May and June, and remains until November. It is occasionally taken with the hook on the black-fish grounds, but is never abundant. Southward it ranges at least to Brazil.’’ * Harper's Weekly, Nov. 1, 1884. (With illustrations.) THE BLACK GROUPER. THE GROUPERS AND THE JEW FISH. Hugest of all are fish in sea For they were formed by heaven’s great King Before all other earthly thing. The Voyage of St. Brandon (Medieval) "T= various species of Grouper are already of importance, and will be still more highly appreciated by the anglers of future generations. They are members of the genus Zpnephelus, and other closely related genera. The Red Grouper, Zfinephelus morto, is a large species, some- times attaining the weight of forty or fifty pounds. There is no certain record of its having been captured north of Florida, where it is called the «‘Brown Snapper’’ or ‘‘ Red-bellied Snapper.’’ DeKay, writing in 1842, stated that it was not unusual in the New York market in June and July, where it was called by the fishermen ‘ Groper,’ or ‘Red Groper’; that it is a Southern species and is brought from the reefs of Florida, but that he had been informed by West Indian fishermen that it is occasionally, but rarely, taken off the coast of New York; he added that Dr. Holbrook in- formed him that it was brought into the Charleston markets from Florida in the months of January, February, and March. Holbrook wrote: ‘‘ The Grouper is so seldom seen on our coast that nothing can at this time be said of its habits; but in confinement, as it is brought to us from Key West, it appears very voracious and bold, taking 48 AMERICAN FISHES. food even from the hand when offered, and always injuring such other species of fish as may be its fellow-captives.’’ It is often taken in the Gulf of Mexico and about the Florida Keys, and it is said also to be abundant along the whole coast of East Florida, and is often taken on the St. John’s bar. Mr. S. C. Clarke writes that it occurs in the vicinity of New Smyrna, Fla., where it spawns in bays and inlets in the months of May and June, as does also the Black Grouper. The only reliable study of its habits which has been made we owe to Mr. Silas Stearns, whose biographical sketch of this species may here be quoted in full: ‘¢The Red Grouper is extremely abundant in the Gulf of Mexico in com- pany with the red snapper. It is most abundant on the South Florida coast, and is found throughout the year on the ‘ grounds’ at sea, and in sum- mer in some of the bays. It probably spawns in both places, and in June and July. The young are often caught in Pensacola Bay. In June, 1880, I obtained a young one about one inch in length. The Grouper is more of a bottom fish than the red snapper, for it swims much more slowly and very seldom rises to the surface. It is very voracious, consuming, as is shown by an examination of the contents of its stomach, enormous quan- tities of crustaceans and small fish. Large horny crabs, in almost perfect condition, are often found inside of it. Its movements are rather slow, and when hooked it is hauled up more like a dead-weight than like a live fish. In South Florida it is extensively eaten when procurable, and at Key West it is particularly important, since a large fleet of smacks is constantly employed in carrying fares of Grouper to Cuba. In West Florida, where red snappers are more abundant, Groupers are not in demand and have but a small market value. After being taken from the water, the Grouper is remarkably tenacious of life, and will live several hours, even though ex- posed to considerable heat. This is one reason why the Key West fleet prefer Groapers for transportation to Cuba, since they are obliged to go a long way to market and through warm water, and no other fish of the kind would bear crowding and chafing in the wells of the smacks. The Grouper attains the weight of forty pounds, and is an excellent food fish.’’ In Cuba, this fish is called by the Spanish name ‘‘ Cherna.’’ The name “«Grouper’’ is a corruption of Garoupa, a name given by the Portu- guese to similar species. In DeKay’s time, as has been remarked, this fish was not unusual in the New York market, where it sold for from six to THE GROUPERS AND THE JEIV FISH. 49 twelve cents a pound, though its flesh was considered tough, and not very highly esteemed. Gill, writing of the same market in 1856, said: ‘‘ This species is sometimes sent to our market from Key West and the reefs of Florida in May and the summer months. Ihave never seen more than two or three exposed for sale at a single time; it appears to be considerably esteemed, and is sold at from twelve to fifteen cents a pound.’”’ Genio Scott writes: ‘‘The Grouper is an excellent dinner-fish, and when boiled and served with drawn butter and shrimp or lobster sauce is said to fully equal the turbot.’’ The Black Grouper, Zpinephelus nigritus, is called in Florida and Texas the ‘‘ Jew-fish,’’ and at Pensacola, known by the name ‘‘ Warsaw,’’ evi- dently corruption of the Spanish name Guasa. It was first brought to notice by Holbrook, who had received one specimen from the vicinity of Charleston ; north of that point it had not yet been observed, though it appears to be abundant along the coast of East Florida and in the Gulf of Mexico. Mr. S. C. Clarke has observed it in the Indian River region, and communicated the following notes to Professor Baird : ‘The Black Grouper is resident all the year, though not abundant. The greatest size attained is about fifteen pounds. They pass the winter in the salt-water rivers, living in holes in the rocks and under roots and snags and about piles. They are solitary in their habits. They feed on small fish, particularly mullet, and on crustaceans, and breed in the salt rivers in May and June. Their spawn is very small, and pale yellow. They are taken with hook and line by the use of mullet and crab bait, and are seldom seen except when thus captured. They are much esteemed as food.”’ In an essay on ‘‘ Florida Game Fishes,’’ published in Zhe American Angler, the same writer says :—‘‘ From a deep hole in the Halifax River, two of us took in one morning, seven groupers, from four to eight pounds in weight, and lost three larger ones which broke our lines. That hole had not been fished for years, and although I have often fished it since, I have never taken another from it.’’ Mr. Stearns remarks that it is a common fish at sea along the Gulf coast, living chiefly on the same spots with snappers and Groupers. At some places it is found in abundance in the bays, and lives on the bottom, feed- ing upon small fishes, crabs, etc. On the fishing grounds when fish are being caught rapidly it is not of unusual occurrence. 4 50 AMERICAN FISHES. A very large Jew-fish will follow and finally swallow a hooked fich, usually a red snapper, with hooks, lead, line and all. If the line does not then break the fish may be hauled in with gaffs. The Jew-fish attains an enormous size, and specimens weighing from eighty to one hundred pounds have been caught. The smaller fish are quite choice, but large ones are too coarse and tough to be salable. There is another fish which is also called ‘‘ Jew-fish,’’ or ‘‘ Warsaw,’’ and ‘‘ Black Grouper,’’ of which only enormously large specimens have been obtained, and which is entered upon our catalogues under the name Promicrops guasa. It is a fair question whether this great fish be not the adult of the common Black Grouper or some closely allied species, the ap- pearance of which has become somewhat changed with age. A large specimen, weighing about three hundred pounds, was taken near the St. John’s bar in March or April, 1874, by James Arnold. It was shipped by Mr. Hudson, a fish dealer in Savannah, to Mr. Blackford, who presented it to the Smithsonian Institution. A fine cast of this specimen graces the Fisheries Hall of the National Museum. Professor Poey, by whom the species was named, states that in Cuba it attains to the weight of six hundred pounds. An old Connecticut fisherman, who was for many years engaged in the Savannah market fishery, states that the Havana smacks often catch Jew-fish. They are so voracious that when put into the well with the Groupers they would do much damage. The fishermen have found it necessary therefore to sew their jaws together before placing them with other fish. The Spotted Hind of the Gulf of Mexico, Epinephelus Drummond-Hayt, has been found only in the Gulf of Mexico and at the Bermudas. It was observed at the Bermudas in 1851 by Col. H. M. Drummond-Hay, of the British army. It is there called ‘‘ John Paw.’’ Specimens were sent to the National Museum in 1876 and 1877, by Mr. Blackford and Mr. Stearns. Itis one of the many important species which have been brought to notice by the labors of the United States Fish Commission. Although it is an excellent food-fish, it is, even now, not well appreciated. Mr. Stearns records the following facts concerning its habits: «‘ The Spotted Hind is common in company with the Grouper and Jew-fish, and is most abundant in South Florida about the reefs. Off Pensacola it lives in the deep fishing grounds, in seventeen, nineteen and twenty-two fathoms. It swims close to the bottom, and is of sluggish movements. I THE GROUPERS AND THE JEW FISH. 51 have not known of its occurrence in the bays, and believe that it spawns at sea. Specimens weighing fifty pounds have been caught, but that is fully four times the average size. It is seen daily in the Key West market and sells readily, but at Pensacola, Mobile and New Orleans it is hardly marketable. Its color varies very considerably with the different colored bottoms on which it lives.’’ The Coney of Key West, Zpznephelus apua, the ‘‘ Hind’’ of Bermuda, is an important food-fish which occurs throughout the West Indies. Speci- mens have been ‘sent by Mr. Stearns, who remarks that it is common in ‘South Florida among the reefs, and is often seen in the Key West market, where it is readily sold. The Bermuda Grouper, Zp7znephelus striatus, one of the most important food-fishes of those islands, is sure to be found in the vicinity of Key West, and will probably prove to be one of the important fishes of our own southern coasts. About Key West and in the Gulf there are several species of the sub-genus AZycteroperca, which may be grouped together under the name ‘‘ Rock-fish,’’ the name by which all fishes of this genus are also known in Bermuda. They are large fishes of excellent food quality, similar in habits to the others of the family which have already been, discussed. The material at present on hand is not sufficient to ad- mit of satisfactory identification of all the species. The ‘‘ Black Grouper’’ of Pensacola, which has been variously named AZycteroperca brunnea, M. microlepis, and MM. stomias, is said by Mr. Stearns to be common in com- pany with the Red Grouper, although not so abundant. It spawns in June and July, at sea and in the inlets. As a food-fish it is considered superior to the Red Grouper, although it is not more readily sold. It at- tains a weight of fifty pounds. Professor Jordan is of the opinion that the form recently described by Goode and Bean as AZ. stomias, the ‘‘Gag”’ of Key West, is the adult of that previously characterized by them under the name MZ. microlepis. The Rock-fish of Key West, which has not yet been identified, is said by Mr. Stearns to be very common, and is sold almost every day in the market. The average weight is four or five pounds, the maximum twenty- five to thirty. There appear to be at Key West, as well as at the Bermu- das, various forms known as ‘‘ Rock-fish.”’ Anallied species, Mycteroperca falcata, is called at Pensacola by the name ««Scamp.’’ It is common off the Florida coast, living near the bottom in 52 AMERICAN FISHES. company with the other species of Groupers. It is found on the coast all the year round, and is caught with the hook and line. It seldom exceeds the weight of twenty pounds, and the average size is much smaller. It is considered an excellent table fish. The Spanish fishermen of Key West call it ‘‘ Baccalao’’ (Cod fish.) S. C. Clarke refers to a fish which he calls the ‘‘ Mangrove Snapper or Red Grouper,’’ to which he attributes gamey qualities far in excess of those mentioned by Stearns. It is probable that he has in mind this grouper and not a snapper. Several of these fishes, whose relations have not yet been determined, have been taken abong the Atlantic coast, particularly at the mouth of the Chesapeake and at Wood’s Holl, Massachusetts. There are several other species belonging to this family which have been observed, none of which, however, are of any economic importance. The Pacific Jew-fish, Stereolepis gigas, is one of the principal serranoid fishes of the Pacific coast. It is also sometimes called the ‘‘ Black Sea Bass.’’ It reaches a weight of five hundred pounds, being the largest food-fish on the coast. It ranges from the Farallones to below San Do- mingo, and is generally abundant in deep water about the islands, but from its great size is seldom taken. It feeds upon smaller fishes, and is voracious. It is often taken by swallowing a white-fish when the latter is on the hook. Its flesh is of excellent quality, and those small enough to be available always brings a very high price in the market. The Cabrilla, Serranus clathratus, is called at Monterey, where it is not common, the ‘‘Kelp Salmon’’; further south it is known to the Americans usually as ‘‘ Black Bass,’’ and to the Italians and Spaniards as ‘¢ Cabrilla,’’ a name applied to other species of Serranus in the Mediter- ranean. The Chinese call it ‘‘ Lockee Cod’’ (Rock Cod). It reaches a length of eighteen inches and a weight of about five pounds. It ranges from San Francisco to Cerros Island, being very abundant about the Santa Barbara Islands, where it is taken in large numbers. It lives in water of no great depth, chiefly about the rocks. It feeds on squid, crustacea, and small fishes. It is an excellent food-fish, similar in quality to the related Atlantic species. The Johnny Cabrilla, Serranus nebulifer, receives the name ‘‘ Rock Bass’’ and ‘‘ Cabrilla’’ with the other species. The distinctive Spanish name of ‘: Johnny (Juan) Verde’’ is also in frequent use, especially at San THE GROUPERS AND THE JE! FISH. 53 Pedro. It reaches a length of twelve to twenty inches and a weight of about five pounds. It has been taken at Monterey, but is common only from San Pedro southward to Magdalena Bay. So far as known to us, it agrees in habits and value with the preceeding. THE RED GROUPER. EPINEPHELUS MORIO. The Spotted Cabrilla, Serranus maculofasciatus, receives the same names, ‘‘ Rock Bass’’ and ‘‘ Cabrilla,’’ as others. It agrees with the pre- ceeding in value, distribution, and habits, so far as is known, but is rather smaller in size. It isan excellent food-fish, and from its great abundance about San Diego it may become of considerable economic importance. Its range extends southward to Mazatlan, it being one of the very few California fishes which extend their range to the south of the Tropic of Cancer. THE LARGE-MOUTH BASS. THE BLACK BASSES. Fishing, if I, a fisher, may protest Of pleasure is the sweetest, of sports the best Of exercises the most excellent ; Of recreation the most innocent, But now the sport is marde, and wott ye why. Fishes decrease and fishers multiply.” De Piscatione, 1598. NTIL recently, we supposed that there were many kinds of Black Basses. Different communities christened them to their own liking, and naturalists, misled by the numerous popular names, described, as dis- tinct, forms which, had they been seen side by side, they would have con- sidered the same. Twenty-two separately named species are on record. In 1873, Prof. Gill, after studying specimens gathered from all parts of the United States by the Smithsonian Institution, came to the decision that there were only two species, the Large-mouthed and the Small-mouthed bass. This was easy work for so accomplished an ichthyologist as Gill, but the difficulty was to determine the ownership of the many names already established in the literature of ichthyology. After five years of uncertainty, and several changes, thirteen of these have been allotted to the Small-mouth, and the remainder of nine to its cousin with the long jaw. The oldest name for the Large-mouth is A@icropterus salmoides, and for the Small-mouth, as Henshall has proved, Mecropterus Dolomie?: it is hoped that this decision, which is grounded upon a firm foundation of priority, may be permitted to stand unchanged. Gill’s paper, in which he defines the differences between the two species, was published in 1873 in the Pro- ceedings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. THE BLACK BASSES. 55 This volume is, however, not easily accessible, and the important differences are therefore repeated in this place. In the Large-mouth the upper jaw extends far behind the eye; in the other to a point below it. The Large-mouth has from sixty-five to seventy rows between the gill- opening and the base of the tail, instead of seventy-two or more, while on the cheek there are about ten oblique rows instead of seventeen, also seven- and-a-half to eight instead of eleven rows between the lateral line and the dorsal. There are other distinctions, such as the absence, in the Large- mouth, of scales on the bases of the dorsal and anal fins, the smaller num- ber of rays in the pectoral fins (there being thirteen or fourteen instead of sixteen or seventeen), and the lesser height of the spinous dorsal. (In the Large-mouth the first dorsal spin is one-half; in the Small-mouth, one- third of the height of the third dorsal spin). Mh eS se See SS aes ne 3 Ses Ss oe Ss SSSoee Sates = = SERS THE SMALL-MOUTH BASS. Numerous as have been the zodlogical names, they are outnumbered by the popular names still in use in different localities. Charlevoix, a Jesuit missionary, who explored Canada in 1721, mentionsa fish called ‘‘Achigan,”’ which is thought to have been the Large-mouth. An earlier allusion to this species, which in the Southern States is still called ‘‘ Trout,’’ occurs in the writings of Réné de Laudonniére, who described the incidents of the first Huguenot expedition to Florida in 1652, under the command of Jean Ribault. The Large-mouth is known in the Great Lake Region, especially in Northern New York, as the ‘‘ Oswego Bass.’’ This name should not be confounded with ‘‘ Otsego Bass,’’ a local name for the com- mon whitefish. In Kentucky, and possibly in Florida, it is called «Jumper ;’’ in Indiana, ‘‘ Moss Bass ;’’ in the Southern States generally, «¢ Trout,’’ though on the Tar River of North Carolina, it is called ‘* Chub,”’ and on the Neuse, ‘‘ Welshman.’’ 56 AMERICAN FISHES. The Small-mouth shares with the Large-mouth in the Southern States the names ‘‘ Jumper,’’ ‘‘Pearch’’ and “Trout,’’ and in Alabama, according to Prof. Jordan, it is called the ‘‘Mountain Trout. ‘‘ Bronze-backer’’ is one of its pet names among the anglers. 5 ‘¢Marsh Bass,’’ ‘‘ River Bass,’’ ‘“ Rock Bass,’’ ‘« Slough Bass,’’ ‘‘ White Bass,’’ ‘*Green Bass,’’ ‘‘Spotted Bass,’’ ‘*Green Perch,’’ ‘‘ Yellow Perch,’’ ‘‘ Black Perch’? and ‘‘ Speckled Hen ’’ are other names applied to one or both species. A comedy of errors this hath surely been, and the colloquy between the Duke and the Dromios comes pat to the pen: “Duke. One of these men is genius to the other ; And so of these. Which is the natural man, And which the spirit? Who deciphers them ? Dromio of Syracuse, I, sir, am Dromio ; command him away. Dromio of Ephesus, 1, sir, am Dromio; pray let me stay.’’* Both species are very widely distributed over the Atlantic slope of the continent east of the Rocky Mountains, and their range is probably much wider than is now supposed, for many of our northern and western waters are stillunexplored. The Large-mouth and Small-mouth dwell together in the Great Lakes, and in the upper parts of the St. Lawrence and Missis- sippi basins. The Small-mouth is found north to latitude 47° and west to Wisconsin, while southward it ranges to latitude 33°, where Prof. Jordan found it in the headwaters of the Chattahoochee and Ocmulgee Rivers, this being the only instance of its presence in a stream emptying east of the Alleghanies, into which it isnot known to have been introduced by man. The Large-mouth ranges further to the west and north, occurring in the Red River of the North, perhaps as far as Manitoba, in latitude 50°. It abounds in all the rivers of the Southern States, from the James to the St. John, and in the lower reaches of the streams and bayous connected with the Gulf of Mexico, around to Texas, in latitude 27°. To the waters of New England and the eastern part of the Middle States they are not native. The Small-mouths found their way into the Hudson in 1825 or soon after, through the newly-opened Erie Canal, and they have since been introduced by man into hundreds of eastern lakes and rivers. Many circumstances suggest the idea that in early days, before * For fuller information upon this and other matters connected with the species the reader is referred to Dr., J. A. Henshall’s elaborate and exhaustive illustrated treatise, entitled ‘* Book of the Black Bass,’’ published in 1881 by Rebert Clarke & Co., Cincinnati. ‘‘ Fly fishing for Black Bass,’’ a serial publication by W. S. Norris, in Zhe American Angler, isan exceedingly well-written sketch in the American style. THE BLACK BASSES. 57 the various drainage systems were connected by canals, the distribution limits of the two species were much more sharply defined, the Large-mouth inhabiting, perhaps, the upper part of the basin of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence and the rivers of the southern seaboard, while the Small- mouth was found chiefly in the northern part of the Mississippi basin. This theory can never be demonstrated, however, for the early ichthy- ologists had not adopted the accurate methods of study now in use, and their descriptions of the fish they saw are scarcely good enough to guess by. The mingling of the two forms might have been accomplished in an incredibly short time. A few young Bass will multiply so rapidly as to stock a large lake in five years. The Potomac and its tributaries swarmed with them ten years after their first introduction. A very suggestive incident occurred at the Brookline Reservoir, near Boston. Nine Bass were introduced in July, 1862. Four or five years after, in examining the water-pipes leading thence to Long Pond, Bass in considerable numbers and of large size were found; and what is still more strange, they had, either as young fish, or in the egg state, gone through the screen at the mouth of the pipe and found their way into the pond itself, having accomplished an underground journey of fifteen miles through a brick aqueduct nowhere more than six feet in diameter. Gill states that the two forms of J/7cropterus have long inhabited the waters of the cismontane slope of the United States, except those of the New Eng- land States and the Atlantic seaboard of the Middle States. Only one, however, the Small-mouth, appears to have been an original inhabitant of the hydrographic basin of the Ohio River. The Bass do not seem to depend closely on temperature. Having no opportunity of avoiding the cold, they sink to the deepest part of their watery domain at the approach of winter, and if the chill penetrates to their retreat, their vitality is diminished, their blood flows more slowly, they feel no need of food, and forthwith enter into a state of hybernation. Mr. Fred. Mather kept one in his aquarium nearly all of one winter. It ate nothing, and seldom moved any members except its eyes. In deep lakes, however, they can sink below the reach of surface chills, and here they are sometimes caught with a hook through the ice. In the South their activity never ceases. Any one who has seen Black Bass feeding must have been impressed with their immense power of movement. They soon become masters of the waters in which they are placed. Sun-fish, 58 AMERICAN FISHES. perch, trout, young salmon and even the ravenous pickerel, are devoured. They feed at the surface on moths, flies and frogs; they turn over stones in search of crawfish and insect larve. Rats and snakes have been seen in their stomachs. A correspondent of Forest and Stream relates that once, while fishing in the Chicago River, one of the small frogs used for bait escaped and perched on a portion of an old wreck above the water. A Black Bass came along, and, lifting his head from the water, picked off the frog, and descended to the depths below. The angler finds them at the proper seasons equally eager for fly-hook, trolling-spoon, or still-bait, and always ready for a struggle which puts his rod and line toa severe test. Their leaps are almost as powerful as those of the salmon. The negro fishermen of Florida often surround a body of Large-mouths with a seine, but as the lines are hauled in and the arc grows smaller the dark forms of the ‘‘ Trout’’ begin to appear, springing over the cork-line and returning, with a splash and a jet of spray, to liberty. I have seen them rise five or six feet above the water. They are said to be taken best at night, or when the river is high and the water muddy. Otherwise they leap over the seine. Expert seiners coil their nets in such a manner as to. prevent the escape of part of the school. The Small-mouths are said, generally, to prefer deep or swift, cool waters, while the Large-mouths live in muddy, black pools, or in the shelter of old stumps and ledges. In Florida they lurk among the lily-pads and aquatic plants in shallow, dark streams, where they feed on a grub called the ‘‘ bonnet-worm,’’ which burrows in the flower-buds of the ‘‘ bonnets’’ or yellow water-llies, Wuphar advena. The account given by Laudonniere of the abundance of this fish in Florida nearly two-and-a-half centuries ago, is well worth quoting : ‘‘ Having passed,’’ he writes, ‘‘ most part of the day with these Indians (at Cape Francois), the captain imbarked himselfe to pass over to the other side of the river, whereat the king seemed to be very sorrie; never- theless, being not able to stop us, he commanded that with all diligence they should take fish for us, which they did with all speede. For, being entered into their weares, or inclosures made of reeds and framed in the fashion of a dalyzintto or maze, they loaded us with trouts, great mullets, plaise, turbuts and marvellous store of other sorts of fishes altogether different from ours.’’ The spawning season occurs on the approach of warm weather. Its date does not vary much with latitude. In Florida, in Virginia and in Wis- consin they build their nests in May and June. The oldest fish, we are THE BLACK BASSES. 59 told, sometimes anticipate the ordinary season, while many late spawners are occupied with family cares until the last of July, and some young fish are not ready until October and November. After the spawning is over the Bass are ‘‘in season.’’ They take the hook eagerly from July till November. In the winter they are lank and black, though in season till the ice comes. Concerning their spawning habits, Mr. Hallock, of the Blooming Grove Association, wrote in 1875: ‘‘ Four years ago, one hundred and thirteen Black Bass from Lake Erie were placed in Lake Giles, and their progeny has increased so fast as to insure good sport to the angler at any time. The late spawners are now (early July) in the gravel beds, in the shallow waters along shore, protecting either their spawn or their newly-hatched fry, as the case may be. It is interesting to note the pertinacity with which they guard their precious charges, and the vigor with which they drive away depredators and intruders of all kinds. They will frequently allow a boat to pass over them, scarcely six inches above their backs, and obstinately keep their ground. Sun-fish and such are compelled to keep their distance. There are hundreds of these bowl-shaped excavations, eighteen inches or so in diameter, all along the sandy shallow shores of this lake, which is very clear, and in the center some seventy feet deep, fed by bottom springs.’’ The eggs are much smaller than those of a trout, and, being heavier than the water, rest on the bottom within the limits of the nest. The only estimate of their number with which I am familiar is that made by Mr. E. L. Sturtevant, who found about 17,000 in a Large-mouth weighing two and one-half pounds. The length of time required by the eggs in coming to maturity is esti- mated at from eight to ten days, the hatching being somewhat accelerated in warm weather. The young fish, when first hatched, are about three- eighths of an inch long. They are very active, and at once begin to feed. One observer describes them as darting rapidly about, looking like black motes in the water; while another has seen them lying motionless near the bottom, the school appearing like a floating vail of gauze. For a few days they may be seen playing about the nest, but they soon dis- perse, to find lurking places among the grass and pebbles near the margin of the water, and to begin their corsair career by preying upon the larve of insects and the minute crustaceans which abound in such localities. 60 AMERICAN FISHES. They have another reason for seeking a shelter in the shallow water, for their parents are surely guilty of inconsistent conduct. They are said to care tenderly for their callow brood, and even teach them how to eat; but this must be a mistake: for although it cannot be denied that they patiently mount guard over their nestful of eggs, they are often seen devouring their new-born offspring, who thrive in the very teeth of their piratical relatives. The rate of growth of the young has been studied in artificial ponds. In Granby, Conn., four-pound fish were taken in 1874, the progeny of two hundred and fifty fish placed in the pond in 1868. The eggs require two or three weeks to hatch. In September the young are about two inches long; when well fed they grow to four inches the first season. At two years of age they weigh about a pound, few caught in the North weighing more than four pounds. Leaving the egg in June, they grow to two or three inches before cold weather begins—trim, sprightly little darters, with black bands across the bases of their tails. Another twelve- month finds them in the garb of maturity, eight or nine inches long, and with their organs swelling in preparation for the act of spawning, which they are said to undertake at the age of two years, and when less than a foot long. The ordinary size of the adult fish is two and one-half to three pounds, though they are sometimes taken in the North weighing six or seven pounds. In Florida the Large-mouths grow larger. A seven or eight-pounder is not unusual in the St. John’s; and I was told that in March, 1875, a fish weighing nineteen and one-half pounds was caught in the lake at Gainesville, Fla. Fish culturists have made many efforts to hatch the eggs of the Black Bass, and have never succeeded. One reason for their failure, perhaps, lies in the fact that, while in the shad and salmon the eggs fall from the ovaries into an abdominal cavity, whence they are easily expressed, in the Bass and other spiny-rayed fishes they are retained until the parent fish are ready to deposit them. This failure is the less to be regretted since the young Bass may easily transported from place to place in barrels of cool water, and, when once introduced, they soon multiply, if protected, to any desired number. Black Bass are very tenacious of life. A Germantown correspondent mentions some taken at 1o o’clock a. m., sold and’wrapped in paper, left in a warm room till 5 p. m., when they were found to be alive and well. ‘ THE BLACK BASSES. 61 The first experiment in their transportation seems to have been that mentioned by A. M. Valentine, who states that a pond near Janesville, Wis., was stocked with Black Bass about 1847. In 1850 Mr. S. T. Tis- dale carried twenty-seven Large-mouths from Saratoga Lake, N. Y., to Flax Pond, in Agawam, Mass. The manner in which the Potomac was stocked with Small-mouths is also well known. It was in 1853, soon after the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was finished, that Gen. Shriver, of Wheeling, carried a number of young fish from the Ohio to Cumberland, Md., in the water-tank of a locomotive engine. These he placed in the basin of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, whence they soon penetrated to all parts of the Potomac basin, and as far down the river as Mount Ver- non. The custom of stocking streams soon became popular, and through private enterprise and the labors of State Fish Commissioners nearly every available body of water in New England and the Middle States has been filled with these fish. This movement has not met with unmixed approval, for by the ill-advised enthusiasm of some of its advocates a number of trout streams have been destroyed, and complaints are heard that the fisheries of certain rivers have been injured by them. The results have been on the whole very beneficial. The Bass never will become the food of the millions. The New York market receives proba- bly less than 10,000 pounds of them annually, and they are nowhere very numerous. Yet hundreds of bodies of ‘waste water are now stocked with them in sufficient numbers to afford pleasant sport and considerable quantities of excellent food. The flesh of the Bass is hard, white and flaky, and not particularly re- markable for its flavor. When sufficiently large, it is perhaps better that it should be broiled, and served with white sauce. The smaller Bass may be treated as pan-fish. They are not well suited for broiling, except in the hands of the most judicious of cooks. The Black Bass is one of the most universally popular of American fishes. Even those who know the joys of trout and salmon angling do not disdain it. For one man who can go forth in search of salmon, and twenty to whom trout are not impossible, there are a thousand who can visit the Bass in his limpid home. There are many methods of angling for Bass. Those who use rod and reel are perhaps not unreasonable when they profess to pity their uncultured brethren who prefer the ignominious method of trolling with hand-line and spoon-bait. 62 AMERICAN FISHES. I shall not attempt to discuss the merits of various kinds of tackle. The dealers in angling apparatus can usually give advice both timely and suitable to the locality. Those who wish to enter into the extreme refine- ments of the art of Bass fishing must read the writings of Dr. Henshall, and then learn for themselves by long years of observation and experi- ment, for to no one is book-knowledge less valuable than to him whose desire it is to catch a fish. Bass may be caught by the use of artificial flies or artificial minnows, with live bait, consisting of minnows, chubs, young perch and many other small fishes, frogs, helgramites, crawfish, shrimps, grasshoppers, crickets or worms, or by the use of spoon-bait or trolling spoon. In bait fishing a light rod, about eight-and-one-half feet long is used with a multiplying reel to insure the delivery of the bait at long distances. In fly-fishing a more flexible rod, eleven feet long, with a click-reel, is preferred. Strong lines, preferably of braided raw silk, are used, and too much care cannot be given to the strength of leaders and snells, and to the perfection of the hooks. Of the various forms of the latter, Hen- shall puts the ‘‘Sproat bend’”’ first and the ‘‘O’Shaughnessy’’ second, using Nos. 4, 5 and 6 for bait fishing and Nos. 2 and 3 for fly-fishing. In trolling from a boat at least 300 feet of line should be used. Troll- ing with the rod ‘‘skittering’’ and ‘‘bobbing’’ are other modes of local popularity. The Small-mouth is the angler’s favorite in the North, being the more agile and pugnacious; but in Florida, the paradise of the Big-mouths, few complaints are heard as to the character of the sport which they afford. ‘J. W.,’’ writing to the American Angler, June 31, 1862, re- ported as follows the weights of sixteen taken in the Homosassa River, Hemard Co., Fla., in one-and-a-half hour’s fishing: 714, 614, 514, 5%, 5, 414, 4, 4%, 4%, 4, 3, 234, 2, 1% ; total, 68 pounds. The introduction of the Black Bass into England by the Marquis of Exeter has caused great consternation among British anglers, who fear that its rapacity may lead- to the destruction of trout and salmon. It has many friends and advocates, however, not the least powerful of whom is Mr. R. B. Marston, editor of the Fishing Gazette. It is, I believe, intended only to place it in streams inhabited by ‘ coarse fish,’’ and the waters of England would surely be the better for the destruction of a goodly percentage of their breams, roaches and _ barbels. THE BLACK BASSES. 63 I have already often quoted the opinions of that wisest of anglers, Charles Hallock, and I cannot otherwise than repeat in this place his prophecy concerning the future estate of the Black Bass. ‘‘ No doubt the Bass is the appointed successor of the trout ; not througn heritage, nor selection, nor by interloping, but by foreordination. Truly, it is sad to contemplate, in the not distant future, the extinction of a beautiful race of creatures, whose attributes have been sung by all the poets ; but we regard the inevitable with the same calm philosophy with which the astronomer watches the burning out of a world, knowing that it will be succeeded by a new creation. «As we mark the soft vari-tinted flush of the trout disappear in the even- tide, behold the sparkle of the coming Bass as he leaps into the morning of his glory! We hardly know which to admire the most—the velvet livery and the charming graces of the departing courtier, or the flash of the armor-plates on the advancing warrior. The Bass will unquestionably prove himself a worthy substitute for his predecessor, and a candidate for a full legacy of honors. “‘ No doubt, when every one of the older States shall become as densely settled as Great Britain itself, and all the rural aspects of the crowded domain resemble the suburban surroundings of our Boston; when every feature of the pastoral landscape shall wear the finished appearance of European lands; and every verdant field be closely cropped by lawn- mowers and guarded by hedges; and every purling stream which meanders through it has its water-bailiff, we shall still have speckled trout from which the radiant spots have faded, and tasteless fish, to catch at a dollar per pound (as we already have on Long Island), and all the appurtenances and appointments of a genuine English trouting privilege and a genuine English ‘ outing.’ ‘In those future days, not long hence to come, some venerable piscator, in whose memory still lingers the joy of fishing, the brawling stream which tumbled over the rocks in the tangled wildwood, and moistened the arbutus and the bunchberries which garnished its banks, will totter forth to the velvety edge of some peacefully-flowing stream, and having seated himself on a convenient point in a revolving easy chair, placed there by his care- ful attendant, cast right and left for the semblance of sport long dead. ‘« Hosts of liver-fed fish rush to the signal for their early morning meal, and from the center of the boil which follows the fall of the handfuls thrown in, my piscator of the ancient days will hook a two-pound Trout, and play him hither and yon, from surface to bottom, without disturbing the pampered gourmands which are gorging themselves upon the disgusting viands ; and when he has leisurely brought him to hand at last, and the gillie has scooped him with his landing-net, he will feel in his capacious pocket for his last trade dollar, and giving his friend the tip, shuffle back to his house, and lay aside his rod forever.’’ THE SUN-FISH, LEPOMIS GIBBOSUS. THE SUN-FISHES AND THEIR ALLIES. Slowly upward, wavering, gleaming Lifting up his disk refulgent, Rose the Ugudwash, the Sun-fish Loud he shouted in derision "Seized the line ot Hiawatha, ‘Esa! esa! shame upon you. Swung with all his weight upon it. You are Ugudwash, the Sun-fish ; * z * You are not the fish I wanted ; But when Hiawatha saw him You are not the King of Fishes.’ Slowly rising through the water, LonGFELLOw, Hiawatha’s Fishing. HE ‘‘ Pumpkin seed ’’ and the perch are the first trophies of the boy angler. Many are the memories of truant days dreamed away by pond or brook side, with twine pole and pin-hook, and of the slow homeward trudge, doubtful what his reception will be at home; pole gone, line broken, hooks lost, the only remnant of the morning’s glory a score of lean, sun-dried perches and Sunnies, and, mayhap, a few eels and pull-heads, ignominiously strung through the gills upon a willow withe, and trailing, sometimes dropping from weary hands, in the roadside dust. Then in later youth came the excursion to some distant pond; the THE SUN-FISHES AND THEIR ALLIELS. 65 early start, long before sunrise, the cane rods trailing over the tail-board of the wagon, the long drive between fresh forests and dewy meadows, the interested faces at the wayside windows. Then at the pond the cast- ing of the seine for minnow-bait, the embarcation in the boat, the careful adjustment of sinker and float, and the long, delightful, lazy day, floating over jungles of eel-grass and meadows of lily pads ; now pulling in by the score the shiners, Pumpkin seeds and perches ; now passing hour after hour without a bite. Just as the nightingale and the lark, though eminent among the lesser song-birds of Europe would, if native to America, be eclipsed by the feathered musicians of our groves and meadows, the perch and Sun-fish yield to the superior claims of a dozen or more game fishes. The Sun- fish and the perch must not be snubbed, however, for they are prime favorites with tens of thousands of anglers who cannot leave home in quest of sport. They will thrive and multiply, almost beyond belief, in ponds and streams too small for bass, and too warm for trout and land- locked salmon ; and I prophesy that they will yet be introduced in all suitable waters throughout the continent, which they do not now inhabit. The Sun-fish, Lepomis gibbosus, is the common ‘‘ Pumpkin-seed,’’ or ‘«Sunny’’ of the brooks of New York and New England. It is every- where abundant in the Great Lake region and in the coastwise streams from Maine to Georgia. It is never found in the Mississippi Valley except in its northernmost part, its distribution corresponding precisely to that of the perch. Its breeding habits are thus described by Dr. Kirtland : ‘« This fish prefers still and clear waters. In the spring of the year the female prepares herself a circular nest by removing all reeds or other dead aquatic plants from a chosen spot of a foot or more in diameter, so as to leave bare the clean gravel or sand; this she excavates to the depth of three or four inches, and then deposits her spawn, which she watches with the greatest vigilance ; and it is curious to see how carefully she guards this nest against all intruders ; in every fish, even those of her own species, she sees only an enemy, and is restless and uneasy until she has driven it away from her nursery. We often find groups of these nests placed near each other along the margin of the pond or river that the fish inhabits, but always in very shallow water; hence, they are liable to be left dry in times of great drought. These curious nests are most frequently encircled by aquatic plants, forming a curtain around them, but a large space is invariably left open fur the admission of light.’’ 66 AMERICAN FISHES. So far as known, the breeding habits of the other species of Sun-fishes agree with those of Lepomzs gibbosus. It reaches, in the lakes, a weight of about one-and-a-half pounds, and as usually taken is of not over a pound weight. Its flesh is of good quality, similar to that of other Sun-fish of the same size, and is graded as superior to that of the perch, but inferior to the black bass and white bass. It takes the hook freely, and to the small boy is the perfection of a game fish, while even the experienced angler does not despise it. W. C. Harris, in his ‘‘Game Fishes of Pennsylvania,’’ remarks: ‘‘I confess to a fondness for catching the ‘pumpkin-seed’ upon the lightest of light fly rods with leader and line of a spider-web consistency. I have caught them, averaging a half pound in weight, by the dozen, with black and brown hackles, and when they reach that size they are so sprightly in their play, when hooked on trout tackle, that we cannot deny them a niche in the gallery of game fishes.’’ THE RED BREAST. LEPOMIS AURITUS. The long-eared Sun-fish, Lepomis auritus, like its relatives, receives the general name of ‘‘ Sun-fish,”” ‘‘ Brim’’ (Bream), and ‘‘ Pearch”’ (Perch). In Pennsylvania it is called ‘‘Sun Perch’? and ‘Red Headed Bream,”’ elsewhere it is the ‘‘ Red Breast,’’ ‘* Red Bellied Bream’’ and the “‘ Red Bellied Perch.’’ It is found in all coastwise streams from Maine to Louisiana, but does THE SUN-FISHES AND THEIR ALLIES. 67 not penetrate far into the interior. It seldom reaches a weight of much over a pound, but from its abundance becomes in the rivers of the South a food-fish of some importance. Like the others, it feeds on worms, crustacea and small fishes, and spawns in early summer. The Blue Sun-fish, Lepomis pallidus, is also known as the ‘‘ Blue Bream”’ and ‘‘Copper-nosed Bream,’’ and in Kentucky sometimes as the ‘‘ Dol- lardee.’’ This is the most widely distributed of our Sun-fishes, ranging from New Jersey and the Great Lakes to Florida and Mexico. It reaches a weight of one-and-one-half to two pounds, and, in some regions, is an important market fish. Its habits adapt it especially for cultivation in ponds. Many other species of similar size abound in the fresh waters of the Mississippi Valley, and are known as ‘‘Sun-fish,’’ ‘‘ Bream’? and ‘‘ Perch.’’ L. cyanellus and L. megalotis are universally abundant both North and South; the others are chiefly Southern. All take the hook readily, and are good pan-fish, but from their small size they have no economic im- portance, and are valued chiefly by urchins and negroes. The Warmouth, Chenobryttus gulosus, is well-known throughout the ‘South. The names <‘ Perch,’’ ‘‘Sun-fish,’’ ‘‘Goggle-eye’’ and ‘‘ Red- eye ’’ it shares with others of its relatives. It is found in all the lowland ‘streams from Virginia to Texas, and in all the Southern States, and is gener- ally abundant. In habits, food, size and value it agrees closely with the Rock Bass. The Black Warmouth, Chenobryttus antistius, a species also called ‘‘ War- mouth,’’ ‘‘Big-mouth,’’ ‘‘Sun-fish’’ and ‘‘Goggle-eye,’’ abounds in the tributaries of the Upper Mississippi, and is often taken in Lake Michigan. In Illinois it is an important food-fish. In size, habits and value it is sufficiently similar to the Rock Bass. The Sacramento Perch, Archoplites interruptus, known only by the name of ‘*Perch,’’ a name applied in the San Francisco markets to many very different fishes. It has been thus far found only in the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers and tributaries. It is abundant in the lower parts of these rivers, large numbers being shipped to the market in San Francisco. It is there bought and consumed mainly by the Chinese, who value it highly, paying for it more than for any other fish which they consume. Although it is an excellent pan-fish, very similar to the black bass, we have never seen any of them bought by Americans. It reaches a weight 68 AMERICAN FISHES. of little more than one pound. Nothing distinctive is known of its habits. THE ROCK BASS. The Rock Bass, Amébloplites rupestris, is also known as the « Goggle- eye’’ and ‘‘ Red-eye.’’ All these names are in general use, the first being most common in the Lake region, the last.further south. It is everywhere abundant in lakes, ponds and larger streams throughout the Great Lake region and the Mississippi Valley. It prefers clear waters, and is not often found in muddy bayous. it is a hardy and gamey fish, and takes the hook readily, and it is a good pan-fish, though not large, its weight seldom exceeding one-and-a-half pounds. Like other Sun-fishes, they spawn in early summer, and about the same time as Black Bass; and keep much about sunken logs and roots. The Mud Bass, Acantharchus pomotis, is found only in the coastwise streams of the lowlands from New Jersey to North Carolina. Its habits are similar to those of the Warmouth, but it is similar in size, and has little value as a food-fish. Centrarchus macropterus has no name more distinctive than ‘‘ Sun-fish ’’ or ‘‘Perch.’’ It is found throughout the lowland streams of the South from North Carolina to Florida, Southern Illinois and Texas, preferring generally rather deep, clear waters. It is rarely seen in upland streams. It is a fish of good quality, but small, rarely weighing more than half a pound. Little is known of its habits. The Strawberry Bass, Pomoxys sparotdes. is a beautiful fish known by a THE SUN-FISHES AND THEIR ALLIES. 69 many names. In Lake Erie, and in Ohio generally, it is the “‘ Straw- berry Bass,’’ ‘‘ Strawberry Perch”’ or ‘‘ Grass Bass.’’? The names “Bitter Head’’ and ‘‘Lamplighter’’ are also ascribed to it by Mr. Klippart, and ‘Bank Lick Bass’’ by Dr. Kirtland, and it is also called ‘‘ Bar-fish,’’ ‘Razor Back,’’ ‘*Chinquapin Perch,’’ ‘‘Silver Bass’’ and ‘Big Fin Bass.’”’ In Lake Michigan the name ‘‘Bar-fish’’ 1s in general use, giving place in Illinois to the name ‘Calico Bass.’’ The latter is among the most appropriate of these designations, having allusion to its varie- gated color. In the South, like Amdloplites rupestris, it becomes a «« Goggle-eye’’ or ‘‘ Goggle-eyed Perch.’’ The Strawberry Bass is found in abundance in all the lakes and ponds of the Great Lake region and the Upper Mississippi. It is also diffused throughout the Mississippi Valley, and appears in the streams of the Carolinas and Georgia east of the mountains. Its preference is for quiet, clear waters, with a bottom covered with grass ; and in the muddy sloughs and bayous, where the Crappie is abundant, it is rarely seen. It is an excellent pan-fish, reaching some- times a weight of two or three pounds, although usually weighing not more than a pound. It is, like its relatives, gamey; but it is not so vora- cious as most of them. The following notes on its habits and value are from the pen of Prof. Kirtland: THE STRAWBERRY BASS. ‘‘The Grass Bass has not hitherto been deemed worthy of considera- tion by fish culturists; yet, from a long and intimate acquaintance with 70 AMERICAN FISHES. its merits, I hesitate not to pronounce it the fish for the million. It isa native of our Western rivers and lakes, where it usually resorts to deep and sluggish waters; yet in several instances, where it has found its way into cold and rapid streams, and even small-sized brooks, by means of the constructing of canals or by the hand of man, it has adapted itself to the change, and in two or three years stocked to overflowing these new loca- tions. Asa pan-fish, for the table, it is surpassed by few other fresh- water species. For endurance and rapidity of increase it is unequaled. * * * The Grass Bass is perfectly adapted to stocking ponds. It will thrive without care in very small ponds of sufficient depth, * * * It will in nowise interfere with the cultivation of any number of species, large or small, in the same waters. It will live harmoniously with all, others, and while its structure and disposition restrain it from attacking any other but very small fry, its formidable armature of spinous rays in the dorsal and abdominal fins will guard it against attacks of even the voracious pike.’’ THE CRAPPIE. Closely related to the Strawberry Bass is the Crappie, Pomoxys annularis. It is the form almost universally called Crappie in the Mississippi Valley. Dr. Henshall has proposed that it shall be called the «Southern Crappie,”’ reserving the name ‘‘ Northern Crappie’”’ for the Pomoxys sparoides.* It is not such an easy matter to change the popular names of fishes, however flexible may be the terminology of the ichthyologist. Strawberry Bass * American Angler, III, 167 THE SUN-FISH AND THEIR ALLIES. 71 and Calico Bass seem to be very appropriate designation for Pomoxys sparoides, and has the additional advantage of being already generally in use in a larger district. Pomoxys annularis is also known by such names as ‘‘Bachelor’’ in the Ohio Valley, ‘‘New Light ’’ and ‘‘Campbellite’’ in Kentucky, Illinois and Indiana, names given to it by the irreverent during the great Camp- bellite movement in the West nearly half a century ago. It is also called ‘«Sac-a-lait’’ and ‘*Chinquapin Perch’’ in the Lower Mississippi, and has other names of local application as ‘‘ Tin Mouth,’’ ‘ Bridge Perch,’’ ** Goggle Eye,’’ ‘* Speckled Perch,’’ ‘John Demon”? and ‘‘Shad.”’ It is also often confounded with the preceding species, and some of the names of the two are interchangeable. This species is not often seen in the Great Lake region, but throughout the Lower Mississippi and its tributaries it is very abundant. Its young swarm in all the muddy bayous along the rivers, and great numbers of them are destroyed in the fall when these bodies of water dry up. With the exception of its predilection for muddy waters, I know little in its habits distinctive from those of the Strawberry Bass. Like the latter, it is said to bean excellent fish for ponds. Both take the hook, feed upon small fishes and crustaceans, and spawn in spring. They grow to be about twelve inches long and to the weight of apound. Exceptionally large individuals have been known to weigh three pounds. Among the Louisiana anglers, especially about Lake Pontchartrain, the Crappie is a prime favorite, for it will takea minnow bait as promptly as a black bass. It is not very pugnacious, however, and will not fight as long as the bass, and is also more easily frightened, requiring greater caution on the part of the angler. A correspondent of the AngZer* describes the fishing in Cedar Lake, Indiana. Angling is carried on from little flat-bottomed skiffs and from sail boats, with bait of minnows, worms or pieces of fish. In five hours two men caught fifty-seven bass and eighty-two Crappies. ‘Trolling is a favorite mode of fishing among the people who live near the lake, who, using two lines with spoon-baits or ‘‘ whirl,’’ and fishing from a sail boat, frequently take two hundred or more Crappies in a day, besides occasional pickerel, perch and bass. Two men fishing for pleasure, took in June, 1882, in the course of three days, a thousand Crappies, weighing from four # Jap’ in American Angler, ii, 87. 72 AMERICAN FISHES. to twenty-four ounces each. Another correspondent of the same journal writes as follows concerning Crappie fishing near St. Louis.* ‘‘Our ‘Croppie,’ the greatest pan-fish of the West, is highly esteemed by us for the table. We have seen a monster Croppie this spring, weigh- ing over three pounds, taken at Murdock Club Lake, near St. Louis, on the Illinois side. We consider one of one-and-a-half to two pounds a large one. They are taken about logs and tree tops, on the water’s edge, in our rivers andsloughs. They are greedy fellows, but as soon as hooked, step right into the boat without a struggle for liberty. **A gentleman of this place, a member of one of our old French families, who turned the scale at about three hundred pounds, was noted for his success in Croppie fishing. He would have his large flat towed to a tree ; when, tied to a limb, he would settle himself for the day, on a pillow, placed in a large split-bottom chair. Hauling his live box and minnow pail alongside, he would bait two hooks attached to a strong line, using a weak snell, so that in case the hook should foul, he could break it loose. He used a float and short, stout bamboo rod and, shaking the bushes a little, ‘to stir up the fish,’ would select an opening and carefully drop in the minnow, two feet below the surface, pass the end of the rods through rings in the side of the boat, light his pipe, and wait for something to happen. It was not long, and after the fun began, it was the same monotonous lifting out of fish, and dropping them into the live-box all the day long, and was continued on the next, until he had brought to creel over three hundred. ‘«T have always associated in my mind the Croppie, and the love of ease and quiet of our old French inhabitants. Nothing could more truly represent contentment and ease than the picture of this simple-minded old gentleman, on his annual Croppie fish at King’s Lake.’’ * «St. Louis”? in American Angler, i, 312. THE RED SNAPPER. SNAPPERS AND RED-MOUTHS. The island’s edges are a-wing With trees that overbranch The sea, with song-birds welcoming ‘The curlews to green change, And doves from half-closed lids espy The red and purple fish go by. Mrs. Brownine, Ax Jsland. HE Snappers and the Grunts belong to Gill’s family, Préstipomatide. Jordan puts them with the Sparzd@, or Sea-Breams, while Giinther in- cludes them in his much more comprehensive perch family. They are among the most wholesome and abundant of the food-fishes of tropical waters. There are numerous species in the West Indian fauna, but only a small number are sufficiently abundant on the coast of the United States to merit discussion in this book. The Snappers and Grunts are among the most highly colored of the tropical fishes—the tanagers and grosbeaks of the coral reefs. The Red Snapper, Ludéjanus Blackfordi?, although it has been for many years a favorite food-fish of the Gulf of Mexico and Eastern Florida, has but recently become known in Northern markets. About 1874 individuals of this species were occasionally seen in New York and Washington, and they began shortly after to come into notice in the cities of the Mississippi Valley. It was not even described and named until 1878, when a study 74 AMERICAN FISHES. of the notes and measurements obtained in Florida confirmed my sus- picion, which had been growing for years, that the species was new to science. The name Lutjanus Blackfordii was chosen in compliment to Mr. Eugene G. Blackford, Commissioner of Fisheries of New York, whose enthusiastic labors have greatly aided all students of American ichthyol- ogy, and who has added several species of fishes to the fauna of the United States. The genus Luéjanus was founded in 1787 by Bloch, who derived its designation from /kan Lutjang, an Asiatic name for a kindred species of the group. Its color is bright crimson, and it is the most conspicuous fish ever to be seen in our markets. Seven years ago the geographical range of this species was supposed to be limited at the north by Savannah Bank, but during the summer of 1880 several specimens were taken along the coast of the Middle States; one, nine-and-a-half pounds in weight, off Point Monmouth, New Jersey, Oc- tober 5; another, about August 10, near Block Island. This northern ex- tension of its range is quite unexpected, and the fact that even stragglers. find their way into the northern waters suggests great possibilities for the future in the way of their artificial propagation and introduction along the coast of the United States. In the South itis found on the same grounds with the sea-bass, a species which is abundant as far north as Cape Cod, and it is hard to understand why the banks which are favorite haunts of this fish should not also be shared by the Red Snapper. In the Gulf of Mexico the Red Snapper is exceedingly abundant in suitable lo- calities from Key West to the Rio Grande. «« About the Florida reefs,’’ writes Silas Stearns, ‘‘and as far north as Temple Bay, where there are reefs and rocks, they live in holes and gullies. where all kinds of marine animals and fish are most abundant, and some- times, as I have noticed, off Charlotte Harbor numbers of them will con- gregate about a solitary ledge protruding over a level bottom of white sand. Throughout this southern district the fishing spots are small, but very numerous ; and away from the reefs, where the bottom is chiefly sand, it is only necessary to find rocks or rocky bottom to find Red Snappers. Since it is impracticable to make use of bearings by which to find the fishing grounds, the fishermen sail about, throwing the lead continually until it indicates the proper bottom. Along the coast from Temple Bay to Texas the bottom declines very gradually to the hundred-fathom curve, forming vast, almost level plains cf sand. In these barren wastes there are gullies. SNAPPERS AND RED-MOUTHS., 15 of variable size, having rocky bottoms and teeming with animal and vege- table life. These gullies occur at a depth of from twelve to forty-five fathoms, the water in them being several fathoms deeper than the sur- rounding bottom, and more rocky, and in the deepest parts richer in ani- mal life. Red Snappers are exceedingly abundant in these places, which are the so-called ‘snapper banks.’ From Temple Bay to Cedar Keys the gullies are numerous in sixteen, eighteen, and twenty fathoms ; from Cedar Keys to Saint Mark’s, in fifteen and sixteen fathoms; off Saint Mark’s and Dog Island there are a few in five and ten fathoms. From Cape San Blas to the mouths of the Mississippi River occur the best fishing grounds in the Gulf, so far as is now known; gullies ten and fifteen fathoms in depth are especially abundant fifty miles west from the cape. West of the Mississippi, and on the Texas coast, there are a few which are in twelve and fifteen fathoms. These grounds are found by the use of the sounding- lead, which shows every position by the sudden increase in the depth of the water. Red Snappers live in such places all the year, except, per- haps, in some of the five and ten fathom ones, which are nearly deserted in winter. Off Pensacola there seems to be quite a movement inshore in fall. In South Florida they are usualiy associated with the groupers, which occur in the proportion of about three to one, while in West Florida the case is reversed ; not more than one fish in ten of those caught is a grouper.’’ Red Snappers are also known to be abundant on the Savannah Bank and on the Saint John’s Bank, off Eastern Georgia and Florida. The Red Snappers are strictly carnivorous, feeding upon small fish, crabs, and prawns. The temperature of the water in which they live probably rarely falls below 50°. They have no enemies except sharks and’ two or three enormous spiny-rayed fishes such as the jew-fish or warsaw (Guasa). The only reliable observations upon their breeding habits have been made by Mr. Stearns, who states that they spawn in May and June in the bays and at sea. In June, July, and August they are found in some of the bays of the Northern Gulf, about wrecks and rock-piles, in consid- erable numbers, and none are taken but the larger adults and the young from one to eight inches long. The spawning season probably extends over a period of several months, Mr. Stearns having found well-developed ovaries in them from April to July. Nothing is known of their rate of growth. They attain to the size of forty pounds. In East Florida, however, the aver- 70 AMERICAN FISHES. age is much less. Mr. Stearns remarks that in the Gulf of Mexico they very seldom exceed thirty pounds weight, though he has seen several of that size, while the average is eight or nine pounds, and in a large lot may usually be found individuals weighing from two-and-one-half to twenty pounds. Red Snappers from Florida are frequently quoted in the New York mar- ket returns. In 1879 about 12,000 pounds were there sold. They are also shipped to Boston, Washington and Baltimore in winter, the supply in these cities being derived chiefly from Pensacola. Mobile and New Or- leans consume considerable quanities, and from these ports they are shipped up the Mississippi River to the principal cities of the West, where the fish is growing to be a staple of much importance. In Saint Louis and New Orleans itis one of the most highly esteemed food-fishes. Snappers should always be boiled or cooked ina chowder. Thus treated they are equal to the striped bass, sea bass or turbot, in flavor and texture. The Court-Bouition of the New Orleans cooks is made of Snappers, and is very delicious.* Snapper-fishing is usually carried on with a bottom bait of skip-jack, bluefish, or young shark. The Snappers will sometimes bite at a white rag. Norris, the only sporting authority who has written about them with a clear understanding as to what species he was dealing with, states that they bite readily at a silver or pearl squid. Iam inclined to believe that this isa mistake. Their habits are closely similar to those of the sea bass and the sheepshead, and they seldom rise to the surface. A trip to the Snapper banks is a favorite summer recreation for the gen- tlemen of Jacksonville. A tug is chartered for the day, and usually re- turns to the city with flags flying, whistles triumphantly sounding, and gorgeous festoons of red fish hanging over the bows. My friend, Dr. C. J. Kenworthy, has kindly given me the foilowing memoranda concerning such a trip: ‘« Highteen of us left Jacksonville at two o’clock in the morning, reaching Mayport before daylight. Before the sun rose we were twelve miles from the shore, and near the banks. The second cast of the lead furnished * Court-Bouillon. ‘‘ This preparation gives boiled fish a better flavor than cooking in clear water does Many cooks use wine in it, but there is no necessity for it. Four quarts of water, one onion, one slice of car- rot, two cloves, two table-spoonfuls of salt, one teaspoonful of pepper, one table-spoonful of vinegar, the juice of half a lemon and a bouquet of sweet herbs are used. Tie the onion, carrot, cloves and herbs in a piece of muslin, and put in the water with the other ingredients. Cover, and boil-slowly for one hour. Then put in the fish and cook as directed for plain boiling.’”’-—Miss Partoa. ‘“SMAPPERS AND RED-MOUTHS. a7 unmistakable evidence of rocks, and over-board went the lines. They scarcely touched bottom before the cry ‘Snapper!’ ‘Snapper!’ was heard, and a crimson beauty graced our deck. «« All were soon engaged, foreward, aft, starboard, and port. To feel the bite of a twenty-five pound Snapper at a depth of twelve fathoms causes a sensation never to be forgotten. As the line is pulled in and the fish is first seen at a depth of several fathoms, he looks like silver and not larger than one’s hand. As he comes nearer his tints deepen, as he struggles at the surface to escape, all his rich, brilliant colors are displayed, and when he reaches the deck every one exclaims, ‘What a beauty!’ For a few minutes the shouts resound from all sides, but a change soon occurs. Each man labors as if the number to be captured depended upon his in- dividual exertions, and no breath or time could be spared to cry ‘Snap- per!’ or indulge in fisherman’s chaff. In less than two hours the whistle sounds ‘ Up lines’ for we must cross the bar at a particular stage of the tide. The fish are biting rapidly, but our tired arms and blistered fingers induce us all quietly to obey the warning. ‘¢On the home-trip our captures are counted;—not sea bass, porgies, and small fry, but fish worth counting,—and it is found that the party has cap- tured one grouper weighing thirty-five pounds, two of eighteen pounds, and two hundred and eight snappers averaging twenty-five pounds each,— the entire catch weighing two and one half tons.’’ One April day, some years ago, the writer and a party of friends were passengers on the little steamer which plied between Jacksonville and the mouth of the St. Johns. After leaving Mayport on the return trip, we were hailed by a party of men from a large sail-boat laying-to in the mid- dle of the river. We threw them a line, and they gave us a deck-load of stout fishes,—shapely, bright-eyed, and crimson. We learned that the boat had left Mayport on the previous afternoon, carrying six men, who had, in three hours, taken ninety Red Snappers, weighing in the aggregate over a ton, besides quantities of sea bass. Their brilliant hues were a great surprise to those of our party who were acquainted only with the neutral colors of the common northern market fishes, or perhaps had even seen the dull red color of the Snappers hanging in the markets. The ladies were eager to possess some of the ‘‘ lovely scales,’’ but soon learned one of the first lessons of ichthyology, that scales are always white, what- ever may be the color of the fish which wear them. The writer also learned a lesson in ichthyology, on the same occasion, The opportunity to examine so many specimens of this fish, gave him the clew to the fact that it was an undescribed species and led to its descrip- tions by Goode and Bean under the name Lutfjanus Blackfordit. 78 AMERICAN FISHES. The genus Zwtjanus is found everywhere in tropical waters, and fish resembling the Red Snapper occur everywhere throughout the West Indies. There is one which is abundant on the Bahama Banks and in South Florida. This is Z. campechianus, Poey, perhaps also accompanied by Z. torridus, Cope. Two other brilliant red species occur with LZ. Black- Sordi in the Gulf of Mexico—the Pensacola Snapper, Z. Stearnsii, and the Mangrove Snapper, Rhomboplites aurorubens. On the Bermuda reefs occurs a small but brilliant species, still undescribed, which I propose call- ing L. autolycus. The Pensacola Snapper might fairly be compared with Z. Black- fordit, although its color is somewhat less vivid. Concerning this spe- cies, Mr. Stearns, whose name it bears, writes: ‘‘It is abundant on the Gulf coast, and lives in the bays all the year. In summer it is to be found about stone-heaps, wharves, and old wrecks, where it obtains crustaceous food in abundance. In winter it returns to the deeper places in search of food, and to escape from the cold surface-water. During a cold snap in 1876 a great many of these fish were benumbed and floated at the surface, until the sun appeared and warmed them, when they revived and sought the bottom. They spawn in May and June. They are very cunning, and will not readily take the hook. Those commonly seen in the bays are quite small, averaging ten inches in length, while those taken with the Red Snappers at sea are from twenty to twenty-four inches long. It is an excellent food-fish, generally thought to be superior in flavor to the Red Snapper.’’ ‘This fish has as yet been found only on the Gulf coasts of the United States, where it is known as the ‘‘ Mangrove Snapper.’’ Since this name is used on the Atlantic coast for another species, and has been so used since the time of Catesby, it seems desirable to designate Lu¢janus Stearnsii by another name, and ‘‘ Pensacola Snapper’’ has been suggested. The Mangrove Snapper, Rhomboplites aurorubens, of Charleston, called at Pensacola the ‘‘ Bastard Snapper,’’ is a much more slender and ele- gantly formed fish than either of the Snappers already described. Its color is less vivid, being somewhat more russet, and is enlivened by the presence of narrow, oblique lines, with gold and yellow upon the sides. It is a swift-swimming fish, probably less given to bottom feeding, and more partial to a diet of living fish. It has been found at Jamaica, and as far north as Charleston, S. C. ‘«In the Pensacola region,’’ writes Stearns, ‘‘it is well-known, but not SNAPPERS AND RED-MOUTHS. 79 a common species.’’ Single individuals are occasionally brought in from the sea with the Red Snappers and groupers. It is caught at all depths, from ten to thirty-five fathoms, and seldom exceeds eighteen inches in length. As a food-fish it is equal to the Red Snapper. The Gray Snapper, Lutjanus caxts, is similar in form to the others, but not red in color. It is called the ‘‘ Gray Snapper’’ in South Florida, and the ‘‘ Black Snapper ’’ at Pensacola ; is abundant about the Bermudas, and has been found on the east coast of Florida, in tropical South America, in Western Africa, and about the Bermudas, where it attains the enormous size of sixty to eighty pounds, and is known as the ‘‘ Gray Snap- per,’’ and also, on account of its sly, cunning habits, the ‘‘Sea Lawyer.”’ Mr. Stearns writes: ‘‘It is most abundant in South Florida, living in deep channels, on rocky bottoms, about old wrecks, stone-heaps, and wharves ; it is considered the most cunning fish on the coast, and ex- tremely difficult to catch. The young may be seen about the wharves, and the breeding grounds are probably near by. Those usually observed are from ten to twelve inches in length, but I think I have seen specimens which would measure two feet.’’ The Red-mouths or Grunts, small fishes belonging to the genus Diada- sts, are found in the inshore waters of the Southern Atlantic and Gulf States. They are closely related to the Snappers, which they resemble in form, and have remote affinity, with the perch, the bass, and the porgy and sheepshead. Their colors are usually striking, and without exception, they are distinguished by the brilliant red color of the inside of the mouth and throat, from which they have sometimes been called Red- mouths, or Flannel-mouths. From their habit of uttering a loud, rather melodious sound when taken from the water they have acquired the name of ‘*Grunts’’ and ‘‘ Pig-fish.’” In some localities they are called also ‘« Squirrel-fish,’’ in allusion to the same habit. They are, for the most part, bottom feeders, preying chiefly upon crustaceans and small fish. In fact, they are, in most respects, miniature counterparts of the Red Snap- per. In many localities they are in high favor as food-fish. They have not yet been very carefully studied, but so far as they are now understood the following species are known to occur in sufficient numbers to prove of commercial importance. The Black Grunt, Déabasits Plumier?, has a brownish body, lighter upon the sides, and has the sides of the head ornamented with numerous hori- 80 AMERICAN FISHES. zontal stripes of bright blue, while the posterior half of the lower lip is red. Tt occurs as far north as Charleston, and Dr. Yarrow claims to have seen it at Beaufort, North Carolina, though there is some question whether this species was not mistaken for another. Holbrook records that it has been observed on the Atlantic borders of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. I noticed several small individuals in the markets of Saint Augustine in March, 1877. Stearns mentions the Black Grunt as abundant at Key West among the reefs, and as frequently seen in the markets. It is there known as the ‘“‘ Ronco Grande,’’ D. aldus being called the ‘‘ Margate Fish,’’ and D. chromis the ‘«Sailor’s Choice.”’ The Red-Mouth Grunt, Diabasts aurolineatus, is probably the «‘ Flannel- mouthed Porgy,’’ familiar to Florida fishermen, and often taken on the St. Johns bar. It has recently been found to be common in Charleston in summer. This species was mentioned in Catesby’s great work, published in 1643, under the name of ‘‘ Margate-fish.’"” When alive its color is bright silvery, but 1t soon becomes, when taken from the water, of a dull amber-brown, with a slight brazen tint along the back and sides, though the belly remains white. The upper jaw, within, is white ; the palate is salmon-colored; the lower jaw and mouth below are also white in their interior third; the posterior two-thirds, both within and without, are red, and the mouth below; the tongue and fauces are of a similar color. This fish occurs in Northern Brazil and throughout the West Indias, and specimens are recorded from Jamaica, Trinidad, and the Bahamas; it is found in the Bermudas and on our coast at least as far north as Charleston. Stearns writes: ‘‘It is quite common on the Gulf coast of Florida from Pensacola to Key West. It is caught with hook and line, and is eaten as a pan-fish. I took an extremely large specimen from the snapper ground between Cedar Keys and St. Marks in fifteen fathoms of water. It is not found in the vicinity of Pensacola.’’ Hol- brook writes: ‘‘The Red-mouthed Grunt is occasionally taken in our waters at all seasons of the year, but is never abundant, as seldom more than a dozen or two are met with in the market at one time. It is not highly esteemed for food, since its flesh lacks both firmness and flavor.’’ Uhler and Lugger say that it occurs occasionally in the lower part of the Chesapeake Bay, where it is not considered to possess great economi- cal value. The occurrence of this species so far north needs confirmation. The Norfolk Hog-fish, Pomodasys fulvomaculatus, belonging to a SNAPPERS AND RED-MOUTHS. 81 closely related genus is the ‘‘ Hog-fish,’’ or ‘‘ Grunt,’’ of the Chesapeake, and called also ‘‘ Pig-fish’’ or ‘¢ Grunt’’ in the Gulf of Mexico, and ‘‘ Pork- fish’’ and ‘‘ Whiting’’ at Key West, and known in South Carolina and the St. John’s River, Fla., as well as in Bermuda under the name of «Sailor’s Choice. Its colors are as follows: Above, pale brown ; belly, silvery; sides marked with numerous orange-colored or yellow spots; those above the lateral line disposed in irregular oblique lines, those below it in horizontal rows. Dorsal, anal and caudal fins with similar spots; sides of the head pale bluish with a silvery tint and marked with yellow spots; lower jaw, orange at the angle of the mouth ; internal surface of the gill membrane bright orange.”’ THE NORFOLK HOG-FISH. This species was first described by Mitchill from a specimen taken in the bay of New York. The National Museum has many specimens from various parts of the Southern coast and the Gulf of Mexico. ‘‘In New York,’’ wrote DeKay in 1842, ‘‘this is a rare fish, but occasionally ap- pearing, as I am informed, in our harbor in considerable numbers. It is a very savory food.’’ Prof. Baird did not find it on the coast of New Jerseyin 1854. It occurs in the salt water of the lower part of the Chesa- peake Bay, and is much esteemed for food, being perhaps the most popu- lar pan-fish of the Lower Chesapeake. At Beaufort, N. C., where it is also called ‘‘ Hog-fish,’’ according to Jordan, it is extremely common everywhere in the harbor. Holbrook wrote about 1860: ‘The ‘Sailor’s Choice’ makes its appearance in our 6 82 AMERICAN FISHES. waters about the month of April and continues with us until November, when the largest are taken. I have found in the stomach of this animal only the remains of small fish, and yet it takes hook readily when baited with shrimps and clams. It is found along the coast from Georgia to Vir- ginia, where it is called ‘* Hog-fish,’’ and is held in great estimation by epicures.’’ *¢On the Gulf coast,’’ writes Stearns, ‘‘it is common everywhere and throughout the year it lives in shallow water among the grass, feeding upon small crustaceous animals. It spawns in April and May, and is a choice food-fish. The average length is about ten inches.’’ Stearns also refers to three species known respectively as the ‘‘ White,’’ ‘« Yellow’’ and ** Black’’ Grunt, which are found at Key West and upon the neigh- boring reef in great abundance. He states that ‘‘they are taken with hook and line, and are brought daily into market. Before the poisoned water visited that neighborhood the Grunt was the most important as well as the favorite food-fish in the market, but since then they have been scarce, and other fish, to a great extent, have taken their place.’’ On the coast of California, especially southward, occur two species of this family; one, known by the name ‘‘Sargo,’’ Pristipoma David- sont, is found from San Pedro southward to Cerros Island, chiefly about the islands, and is nowhere common. It feeds on crustaceans, and is a a good pan-fish, but is too scarce to have much economic value. It reaches a length of about fifteen inches. Still another, Xend¢stius califor- niensts Steindachner, occurs from San Diego to Cape San Lucas. It is too scarce to be of any importance for food. THE SHEEPSHEAD. THE SHEEPSHEAD. The pleasantest angling is to see the fish Cut with her golden oars the silver stream And greedily devour the treacherous bait. SHAKESPEARE, Jluch Ado About Nothing, Act rrr, Scener. v7 HE members of the family Sparidae, the ‘‘ Sea-Breams’’ as they are often called, are especially characterized by their heavy, rather com- pressed bodies, their large heads, and strong jaws and teeth. In addition to one or more series of teeth in the front of the jaws, either conical or in- -cisorial in shape, adapted for tearing their food from its lodging places, they always have a set of heavy, flat, grinding-teeth in the back of the ‘mouth, which are often in double or triple rows on each side and are closely set, like the stones in a mosaic. Their use is to crush hard shells of mol- lusks and of barnacles, and other crustaceans. They are sedentary in their habits, living close to the bottom and browsing among the rocks and piles. Their colors are usually inconspicuous and their motions slug- gish. Representatives of this family are found throughout the world in temperate and tropical waters everywhere, and were numerous in the seas and lagoons of the Tertiary and Cretaceous periods. The most important representatives of the family in America, are the 84 AMERICAN FISHES. Sheepshead and the Scuppaug or Porgy. There are several others inhabit- ing our southern coast, of which the Sailor’s Choice, Lagodon rhomboides, and the Bream, or Bastard Snapper, Sparus aculeatus, are the best known, but these are of little importance to either fisherman or economist. On the Pacific side are others, which will doubtless be better known in the future than they are at the present time. The Sheepshead, Archosargus probatocephalus, is one of the choicest fishes. of our waters. It derives its name from the resemblance of its profile and teeth to those of a sheep, and also from its browsing habits. Unlike most of those fishes which are widely distributed along our seaboard, it has only one name, and by this it is known from Cape Cod to the Mexican bor- der. The negroes of the South, however, frequently drop the sibilant sound from the middle of the word and call it ‘‘ Sheephead.”’ Several other species are called by the same name, but there is little danger of confusion except in the case of the so-called ‘‘ Sheepshead’’ of the Great Lakes, which is similar to the well-known ‘‘ Drum ;’’ this fish is occasionally sold to the unwary on the recommendation of its good name. This fish has never been known to pass tu the north of the sandy arm of Cape Cod, and its northern range is at present somewhat more limited than it was eighty years ago. In the records of Wareham, Massachusetts, they are mentioned as having been somewhat abundant in 1803, and in Narra- gansett Bay there isa tradition that they began to disappear in 1793, when the Scuppaug commenced to increase in abundance. In 1871, E. E. Taylor, of Newport, testified before the U. S. Commissioner of Fisheries, that his father caught Sheepshead in abundance forty-five or fifty years previous. In 1870 and 1871 the species was coming into notice in this region, though neither at that time nor since has it become common. On the south shore of Long Island it is quite abundant, and in New York harbor and its various approaches, at times, may be taken in considerable numbers. On the coast of New Jersey it is also abundant, and between Cape May and Montauk Point the species is said to attain its greatest perfection as a food-fish. Lugger states that it frequents the oyster localities of all parts of Chesapeake Bay, but is now more common among the southeastern counties of Virginia, where it comes in considerable numbers to feed upon the animals which live on the oyster bars. It is found about wrecks of old vessels, on which barnacles and mollusks live. About Beaufort, N. C., it is also abundant, and also along the entire coast of the South Atlantic and THE SHEEPSHEAD, 85 Gulf States, where it frequently ascends, especially in Florida, high up the fresh-water rivers. In the Gulf, according to Stearns, it is abundant on the coast from Southern Florida to Mexico. The Sheepshead is a bottom-loving species, quiet in its habits, and little given to wandering. North of Charleston it is absent from the inshore waters during the winter season, but it is probable that its migrations do not carry it far. Holbrook records that it has been taken in Port Royal Sound as early as January, while in Charleston it makes its appear- ance in April and continues until November. Dr. Mitchill, whose obser- vations on this species in the vicinity of New York, made sixty years ago, are perhaps as satisfactory as any which have been made, remarked that its term of continuance was from the beginning of June to the middle of Sep- tember. He had, however, known it to stay later, for one of the most numerous collections of Sheepshead he ever saw was on the 4th of Octo- ber, 1814; he had observed it as late as the 17th of October. In Florida the Sheepshead is found along the shores throughout the entire year, and also in the Gulf of Mexico. It is curious to see how much at variance were the statements of early observers concerning its habit of entering fresh-water streams. Mitchill states explicitly: ‘*He confines himself strictly to the salt water, never having been seen in the fresh rivers.’? Holbrook, speaking of the vicinity of Charleston, says: ‘‘It enters shallow inlets and mouths of rivers, but never leaves the salt for fresh water.’’ In the St. John’s and other rivers of Florida the Sheepshead becomes almost a fresh-water spe- cies, and the young, especially, are constantly taken in seines in company with bass, perch and suckers, far above the limits of perceptibly brackish water. It is not yet possible to infer with any certainty what the tempera- ture limits of this species may be, but it would seem probable that they never willingly encounter water colder than 60°, except perhaps in fall, when they are reluctant to leave their feeding grounds. The statement just made, however, requires acertain qualification. No one knows whether the Sheepshead of our Northern waters go south in win- ter or whether they simply become torpid and remain through the season in deep holes near their summer haunts, their presence unsuspected. Per- haps it would be wiser to say that they are not actually engaged in feeding when the temperature is lower than 60°, and that their winter habits are entirely unknown. Where the water is warmer than 60° throughout the 86 AMERICAN FISHES. year, they are constantly active. The Sheepshead feeds almost exclusively upon hard-shelled animals, mollusks and barnacles, and particularly on young oysters as they grow, attached to stones and sticks of wood. With its strong cutting and grinding tecth and powerful jaws it easily rips off thick bunches of shells, which are quickly triturated by the mill-stone like jaws. The anglers of the South take advantage of their knowledge of its habits. The Hon, William Elliot, in his ‘‘ Carolina Sports by Land and Water,’” describes the peculiar methods employed in Port Royal Sound, South Carolina : ‘¢ They are exceedingly choice in their feeding, taking no other bait but shell-fish. Their favorite food is the young oyster, which, under the form of barnacles, they crush with their strong teeth. Of course they frequent those shores that abound with fallen trees. On the Florida coast they are- taken in great quantities among the mangrove trees, whose roots growing” in the salt water, are covered with barnacles. Formerly they were taken in considerable numbers among our various inlets. Wherever there were steep bluffs, from which large trees had fallen in the water, there they might confidently be sought. But as these lands have been cleared for the culture of sea-island cotton, the trees have disappeared, and with them the fish ; and it has been found necessary to renew their feeding grounds by artificial means. Logs of pine or oak are cut and framed into a sort of hut: without a roof. It is floored and built up five or six feet high, then floated to the place desired, and sunk in eight feet of water by casting stones or live-oak timber within. As soon as the barnacles are formed, which will happen in a few weeks, the fish will begin to resort to the. ground. It is sometimes requisite to do more before you can succeed in your wishes. The greatest enemies of this fish are the sharks and _por-- poises, which pursue them incessantly and destroy them, unless they can find secure hiding-places to which to retreat. Two of these pens, near each. other, will furnish this protection ; and when that course is not adopted, piles driven near each other, quite surrounding the pen, will have the same- effect. Your work complete, build a light staging by driving down four upright posts at a distance of fifteen feet from the pen, and then take your station on it, provided with a light, flexible, and strong cane reed, of twenty feet length, with fourteen feet of line attached, a strong hook and alight lead. Instead of dropping your line directly down and poising it occasionally from bottom, I prefer to throw the line out beyond the per- pendicular and let the head lie on the bottom. The Sheepshead is a shy’ fish, and takes the bait more confidently if it lies on the bottom. When he bites you perceive your rod dipping for the water; give a short, quick. jerk, and then play him at your leisure. If the fish is large, and your jerk THE SHEEPSHEAD. 87 .too violent, the rod will snap at the fulcrum—the grasp of your left hand. It has happened that, at one of these artificial grounds, I have taken six- teen Sheepshead at one fishing. What was unusual was that they were taken in February, when no one thinks of fishing for these or any other sea-fish within the inlets. JI ascertained, from the continued experiments of several years, that they could always be taken at this season, and, fre- quently, January also. The difficulty is to find bait, for neither shrimps nor crabs are then in season. In the case referred to the difficulty was thus removed: The lines were rigged with two hooks; upon one was placed an oyster taken fresh from the shell, on the other an oyster boiled. The scent of the first attracted the fish, but so little tenacity was found in it that, before the fish had taken hold of the hook, the oyster was detached ; but when, encouraged by the taste of the first, the fish advanced to the sec- ond, that having acquired toughness from boiling, would adhere until the hook was fairly taken into the fish’s mouth. They clearly prefer the un- cooked to the cooked oyster, but the latter was more to the fisherman’s purpose. Their fondness for this food suggested the expedient of break- ing up the live oysters in the shell and scattering them in the vicinity of the ground ; also that of letting down the broken oysters in a wicker bas- ket. Each plan is found effectual in attracting the fish. ‘«The bluffs, in their primitive state, in which trees enough are found fallen to give the fish both food and protection against their enemies, are only to be met with now among the Hunting Islands, where the barrenness of the land had secured them against cultivation. On two occasions I have enjoyed excellent sport at such places. On one I took twenty-three to my own rod; on another, twenty-four, and desisted from fatigue and satiety. They are never taken in such numbers when fishing from a boat with a drop-line on the rocks. It is very rare that as many as twenty are taken in one boat.’’ In New Jersey, Sheepshead pens are made by forming enclosures of long stakes driven into the sandy bottom of bays and inlets. In the North, the Sheepshead is equally a great favorite, and the in- structions to anglers written nearly a hundred years ago by Mitchill is bet- ter than any by more recent writers. «« This noble fish visits the neighborhood of Long Island annually, emerging from the depths of the ocean. He feeds in the recesses and inlets upon the clams and mussels, which are abundant and on which he loves to feed. He confines himself strictly to the salt water, never having been seen in the fresh rivers. His term of continuance is only during the warmest season; that is, from the beginning of June to the middle of September. He then disappears to the unknown depths of the Atlantic, and isseen no more until the ensuing summer. The Sheepshead swims in shoals, and is sometimes surrounded in great numbers by the seine ; several 88 AMERICAN FISHES. hundreds have often been taken at a single haul with the long sweeping nets in use near Rayner Town, Babylon and Fire Island. They even tell of a thousand brought to land at a draught. He also bites at the hook, and several are not unfrequently thus caught in succession. The outfitting of a Sheepshead party is always an occasion of considerable excitement and high expectation, as I have often experienced. Whenever a Sheeps- head is brought on board the boat more joy is manifested than by the possession of any other kind of fish. The sportsmen view the exercises so much above common fishing that the capture of the Sheepshead is the most desirable combination of luck and skill; and the feats of hooking and landing him safely in the boat furnish abundant materials for the most pleasing and hyperbolical stories. The Sheepshead is a very stout fish, and the hooks and lines are strong in proportion ; yet he frequently breaks them and makes his escape. Sheepshead have been caught with such fish- ing-tackle fastened to their jaws. When the line or hook gives way, the accident makes a serious impression on the company. As the possession of the Sheepshead is a grand prize, so his escape is felt as a distressing loss. I know an ancient fisherman who used to record in a book the time, place, and circumstances of every Sheepshead he had caught. This fish is sometimes speared by torchlight in the wide and shallow bays of Queens County and Suffolk.’’ Dr. Mitchill concludes his naive remarks by the mournful words: ‘It is to be regretted that the Sheepshead too often corrupt for want of ice.’’ Schoepf, writing of the same region forty years before, states that dur- ing the period of the Revolutionary war the Sheepshead was very abun- dant in the summer months and was a very highly prized species. In 1773 the New York Chamber of Commerce offered a prize of twenty pounds sterling to the crew of the vessel which should bring to the city markets, ‘‘ the greatest quantity of live Sheepshead, from the 1st of May, 1773, to the 1st of May, 1774.’” Some unknown writer contributed to Brown’s ‘‘ American Angler,’’ in 1846, the following memorandum : “‘ These noble fish have become quite scarce in ourharbor. The writer has taken them repeatedly near Governor’s Island, opposite the Battery, but this was in days long since gone by. Still, they are still taken, occa- sionally, at Caving Point and at the Signal poles, at the Narrows, also at Pelham Bridge and Little Hell Gate.’’ Scott gives the following advice to Sheepshead anglers : ‘Tf a resident of New York, you will find Canarsie on the Old Mill, near East New York, the most convenient place from which to take a sail- boat ; a boat is generally at hand at either place. Sail down the channel above the inlet toward Near Rockaway, about a mile below Remson’s Ho- THE SHEEPSHEAD. ' 8&9 tel; feel by sounding for a mussel-bed (they are numerous for a mile along shore), about two hundred yards from which, when found, cast anchor far enough away so that, when the boat toles round from the tide toward the feeding-ground, the cast required for dropping your anchor will be about fifty feet. The water should be about seven feet deep at low tide, and it rises there from four to six feet. The best time is during the period be- tween high and low tides when the water is slack, and until it runs at the rate of five miles an hour, or one hour after it begins to run ; for when the tide runs out it is then considered that Sheepshead seek some still-water ground and wait for a moderate motion of the waters. At the right times of tide the location of the mussel-beds is plainly indicated by a fleet of fif- teen to twenty sail-boats or hand-line fishermen. Many of them are far- mers, who, residing near the shore of Jamaica Bay, employ the interreg- num between hay and grass, uniting their profits, and earning from $3 to gro a day, by fishing for Sheepshead. ‘There are many places along our shores better than Jamaica Bay. The Hand-line Committee makes it pay at Fire Island, and there are many superior feeding places in the South Bay ; about the wreck of the ‘Black Warrior,’ near the Narrows, is celebrated for its great numbers of them ; in truth, our whole coast south of Long Island is rendered inviting by this delicious fish.’’ The favorite resorts of northern Sheepshead anglers are among the rocks about Jamaica Bay, South Bay, and Fire Island, and in various parts of New York Bay, as well as in similar localities on the coast of New Jersey. The Sheepshead of the North is generally considered much finer in flavor, as well as larger than its southern brethren, but I can speak from experience of the delicious quailities of these fish taken in the St. John’s River, Fla., at the upper limit of brackish water, and am inclined to doubt the vaunted superiority of those of New York. In Florida, and as far north as Port Royal, 5. C., the Sheepshead is a winter resident. Mr. Elliott tells of his success in fishing for these species in January and February, despite the scarcity of bait. At Charleston the fish is scarce in winter. At the mouth of the Chesapeake it appears in early April, in New Jersey in May, and at about the same time in the vicinity of New York. In mid-summer it is seen in southern New England. It leaves New Jersey about September, and Virginia in October. Its pre- ferred temperature is, probably, not below 60° or 65° F. Frank H. Al- len in the American Angler, (1, 55) states that at Indian River Inlet, Fla., three men at one tide took one hundred and sixty Sheepshead, using roasted oysters for bait. He states that Sheepshead may, as a rule, be go AMERICAN FISHES. taken wherever the mangrove roots extend out into the water, but in shal- lows they are frightened away. Little is known of its reproduction. When they first appear on our northern coast we are assured by several writers, they are always thin and unfit for food ; it would seem from this that if their spawning season must then have just come toanend. Noone, has made any careful obser- vations upon this point north of Florida however. Mr. S. C. Clarke has observed that about New Smyrna, in the Indian River region of Florida, they spawn at the mouths of rivers and inlets in March and April, the sexes mixing together in schools. The eggs are de- posited in shallow water near the shore, and are about the size of mustard seed, and dark. At the spawning season the fish play near the surface and become thin and unfit for food. The young fish are abundant in shallow water among the rocks.’”’ Silas Stearns writes from Pensacola: ‘¢ The Sheepshead spawns in April and May, inthe bays. On June 18, 1878, and in June, 1879, I caught young Sheepshead, measuring a quarter of an inch, in Pensacola Bay. It lives about wharves, rock-piles, old wrecks, oyster-reefs, and, in South Florida, about the roots of the man- grove tree, feeding upon the barnacles that grow in such places. It is caught with hook and line, in fall and winter, at which seasons it is in its best condition. Its average weight is three or four pounds, and its maxi- mum twenty pounds.’’ Those taken about New York sometimes weigh from twelve to fifteen pounds, though the average size is not more than six. All authorities agree that the Sheepshead is one of the very finest food-fishes in our waters, many persons prefering it to the salmon, while others com- pare it to the English turbot, which, in the writer’s judgment, it excels in flavor.* *How ro Dor Fisu.—The art of boiling fish is so little understood, that it is deemed proper to insert the following instructions, derived from the writings of Georgiana Hill of London. The method of boiling usually practiced is simply to place the fish in salt water, which should be cold if the fish is large, and hot for small-sized fish; in the latter case, two or three minutes in the boiling water will be sufficient, and a sheepshead or bass of four or five pounds will not require more than about ten minutes from the time the water begins to boil. Whenever practicable, use a strainer whereon to place the fish in the sauce-pan Some Finds of teh may be fist sper te carp should retain its skin. . en only salt is added to the water, the fish is said to be a Z’eau de sel. Whe - i fish is understood to be dressed a 7’ Hollandaise. When white wine or vine ae perme rs eas onions, are employed to flavor the water, the fish becomes au court bouillon, and should the fish be simmered ina small quantity of water, to which is added a savoury seasoning of herbs, it is known as being @ la bonne eau; in this case it is generally served in the liquor in which it was dressed ; done in equal quantities of red wine and water, strongly impregnated with aromatic herbs the fish is described as being au dleu, and is almost THE SHEEPSHEAD, gt The Pin-fish, Diplodus Holbrookii, which is abundant at Charleston and about Beaufort, N. C., was first scientifically described by Dr. Bean from specimens obtained in Charleston market, in March, 1878. Jordan found it abundant everywhere near the shores of Beaufort, N. C., in which region it reaches but a small size, and is not used for food. It is confounded by the fishermen with the Sailor’s Choice, Lagodon rhombotdes, invariably served cold; only the best kinds of fish, such as striped-bass, sea-bass, sheepshead, moonfish red snapper, squeteague, salmon &c., are treated in the last way. Salmon, and all dark-fleshed fish require much more boiling than the white-fleshed kinds. When possible, some vinegar should be rubbed on the outside of fish before it is boiled, by which means the skin is prevented from cracking, but the introduction of much flavoring in the liquor in which it is dressed is principally necessary when the fish has been some time out of the water, and is consequently de- ficient in natural flavor. It is considered preferable to serve boiled fish upon a napkin, rather than have a sauce poured over it in the dish; and with salmon it is thought better taste to have a plain white sauce, instead of anything less simple; cucumber or melon in slices may be served apart. 7 No positive rules can be given as tothe length oftime fish should be boiled, as everything depends upon the size and kind of fish you have to dress. a Salmon, usually, should be allowed at least ten minutes to each pound, while two or three minutes per ound will be ample for haddock, cod, &c.: a mackerel needs about a quarter of an hour to do it properly; Bervinge: and many other sorts of fish, scarcely half so long. THE SCUPPAUG. STENOTOMUS CHRYSOPS. THE SCUPPAUG AND THE FAIR MAID. Bait the hook well; this fish will bite. SHAKESPEARE, Much Ado About Nothing; Act ii, Scene iii. Go beeaus, the name of this fish, is an abbreviation of ALishcuppauog, an appellation used by the Narragansett Indians, which has unfor- tunately been corrupted to form two others, neither of which is euphon- ious or significant. In New England it is generally called ‘Scup,” while about New York the second syllable of the abbreviated Indian name has been lengthened into ‘‘Paugy’’ or ‘‘Porgy.’’? The latter name is particularly objectionable because it belongs to an Eng- lish fish, and its proper etymology as a fish-name is very different. Another Indian word, ‘‘ poghaden,’’ a corrupt form of the Abnaki name for the menhaden, or moss-bunker, has been changed to ‘‘pogy’’ and ‘¢porgy,’’ thus leading to much confusion. ‘‘Scuppaug’’ is an excellent name for the fish, and its claims for general adoption will be recognized by all who wish to preserve the memory of the aboriginal languages of America. THE SCUPPAUG AND THE FAIR MAID. 93 Tautog, chogset, squeteague, mummichog, mattawacca, menhaden, siscowet, tullibee, quinnat, oulachan, oquassa and namaycush are among the best of them ; their number is few, and they need careful guardianship. Until very recently only one species of the genus Stenotomus was known to occur in our waters. Dr. Bean has, however, shown that there are two on the Atlantic coast of the United States, in addition to the unimportant species, S. caprinus, recently described from the Gulf of Mexico. The ‘‘Scup’’ of the North, Stexotomus chrysops, is by far the most im- portant, though the Southern species, S. acu/eatus, has considerable com- mercial value. The former, which is distinguished by its larger teeth and more abrupt profile, is abundant between Cape Cod and Cape Hatteras ; the latter has its metropolis on the Carolina coast, but has been found sparingly as far north as Wood’s Holl, Mass. THE FAIR MAID. STENOTOMUS ACULEATUS. On the Virginia coast the Southern Scup is known as the ‘‘ Fair Maid.”’ The name ‘“‘ Porgy ’’ is in use about Charleston, S. C., but is not dis- tinctive, being applied to several allied forms. Their range is much more limited to the south and extends farther to the north than that of the Sheepshead. Holbrook wrote in 1860: ‘‘The Porgy is found along our coasts at all seasons of the year, though most abundant in June and July.’’ He further states that its southern limit on the Atlantic border is Cape Florida, a statement probably not susceptible of proof. 94 AMERICAN FISHES. The Northern Scup rarely passes the boundary of Cape Cod; in 1878, however, thirty-seven were taken at the Milk Island weir off Thatcher’s Island, Cape Ann, Mass., and they appear to be increasing in abundance. This species does not appear to be indigenous north of Cape Cod. Storer states that in the year 1831 or 1832 a smack-load of Scuppaugs arrived in Boston. A portion of them were purchased by subscription among the fishermen in the market and thrown into the harbor, and that in 1834 or 1835 Capt. Downes carried a smack-load from Vineyard Sound and threw them overboard in Plymouth Harbor. From 1860 to 1867 small numbers appeared north of Cape Cod, and were yearly captured at Wellfleet and Sandwich. Judging from the rare occurrence of the species thus introduced, it can hardly be considered to have become naturalized; the few which have been taken were doubtless summer stragglers, although in 1878 over one hundred were taken at Capt. Webb’s weir on Milk Island. The life history of the Scuppaug has been thoroughly worked out by- Prof. Baird, and from his paper published in the first volume of the report of the U. S. Fish Commission, the following life-history is compiled : ‘er rub it with vinegar, or simply dry it and dredge it with flour, then dip it into olive oil, or egg and bread- crumb it, or roll it well in chopped herbs, then place it upon a heated gridiron well rubbed over with fat. Mackerel may be stuffed, but their heads should be taken off. When the fish is thick, score it here and there, or split downthe back. Broiled fish, according to its kind, may be either masked with a sauce, or served upon a purée of sorrel, tomatoes, or haricots, or upon an oil or caper sauce. Soaking fish in a marinade pre- viously to broiling it is a considerable improvement, as it eats shorter arfd better flavoured ; the French steep it in olive oil, made savoury with spices, &c. ‘For the more delicate kinds of fish the gridiron may be stewed with bunches of aromatic herbs (tresh), the fish well oiled being laid thereon; do it very slowly, and only turn it once while being cooked. Fish first crimped in boiling water and then broiled is excellent. No fixed rules can be given as to the time required to broil fish, so much depending upon the state of the fire and the size and sort of the fish. Smoked salmon should be merely made hot through.’’—{Grorciana Hitt.) “* Wipe the fish clean and dry, after taking out the gilland insides. Open the back, and put in a little pep- per, salt, and oil; broil it over a clear fire, turn it over on both sides, and also on the back. When the flesh can be detached from the bone, which will be in about 15 minutes, it is done. Chop a little parsley into the butter, with pepper, salt, and lemon juice. Serve before the butter is quite melted, with a maitre a’ hotel sauce,’”’—(FISHERIES EXHIBITION Cook Book.) 192 AMERICAN FISHES. sionally taken on trolling tackle in use in blue-fishing, but is never so far as I am aware, a definite object of pursuit. Genio C. Scott wrote, in 1875: ‘‘ My experience in trolling for Spanish Mackerel off the inlets of Fire Island has convinced me that the fish is as numerous as the blue-fish, and more so than the striped bass, at certain seasons, and is found a little farther seaward than either of those fishes.’’ ‘‘Every year the shoals of Spanish Mackerel become more and more numerous, and more are taken, but never in sufficient nembers to reduce the average price below sixty cents per pound. The shoals which I saw when last trolling for them would have formed an area nearly five miles square, and still the most successful boat did not take more than a dozen in three days. They. will not bite freely at any artificial lure, and though numbers came near leaping on the deck of our yacht, they treated our lures with an indifference which savored of perverseness.’’ Trolling seems to be more productive in the Gulf of Mexico than far- ther north. Mr. Thaddeus Norris states that in the Gulf of Mexico, they are some- times taken by hook and line, with shrimp-bait at the end of the long piers where the steamers land in Mobile to New Orleans. THE SILVER CERO. The early chronicles of the colonies seem to contain no references to the Spanish Mackerel under its present name, but it seems certain that this fish was the speckled hound-fish, spoken of in that renowned work, «‘ New England Rarities, Discovered in Birds, Beasts, Fishes, Serpents and Plants of that country, etc., by John Josselyn, Gent,’’ published in 1672. Josselyn wrote of ‘‘ Blew-fish or hound-fish, two kinds, speekled hound- fish, called horse-fish.’* The blue-hound-fish can be nothing else than the common blue-fish of our coast, (Pomatomus saltatrix), and no species in the western Atlantic, other than our Spanish Mackerel, sufficiently resem- bles the blue-fish to warrant the use of sosimilaraname. Mitchill referred THE SPANISH MACKEREL AND THE CEROES. 193 to the species in 1815, in a manner which seems to indicate that it was not of rare occurrence, but from his day to 1870, it seems to have attracted but little attention. Even Mitchill’s published description does not seem to have satisfied contemporary ichthyologists of the existence of such a fish, for some of them did not hesitate to express the opinion that Dr. Mitchill had been deceived by accidental differences of color at different seasons of the year, and that there were not so many varieties of Mackerel as he imagined.* In an essay on the fishes of New York market, published in 1854, Prof. Gill referred to the Spanish Mackerel as a species of slight importance. The quantity taken with hook and line is quite insignificant ; they are caught almost entirely in traps and weirs, and these contrivances were not employed in Narragansett Bay before 1845, and did not come into general use clsewhere on the coast until many years later. Many experi- enced fishermen are, however, of the opinion that they have been rapidly increasing of late, and this is strikingly confirmed by the marketmen. DeKay in his ‘‘ New York Fauna,’’ 1842, mentioned that he had seen this fish in New York market, in August and September, but that it was not common. Prof. Baird, who was one of the first to speak of the abundance of this species and to testify to its excellent qualities, wrote in 1854: ‘* But two specimens were taken during my stay at Beesley’s Point, and the species is scarcely known to the fishermen. It was more abundant at Greenport, L. I.; in the Peconic Bay, towards Riverhead, four hundred were caught at one haul of the seine. The fish bring a high price in the New York market, where it has been but recently sold at from fifty cents to one dol- lar a pound, the prices varying with the season. It has been more abund- ant off our coast than ever before, and in the lower part of the Potomac numbers have been taken.’’ The Gloucester ‘‘ Telegraph’’ of August 17, 1870, stated that the New- port epicures were in ecstasies over the fact that Spanish Mackerel, the most delicious fish caught in the sea, were taken there in seines, and remarked that it was only by southerly winds that they were tempted so far north. Mr. J. M. K. Southwick states that the first Spanish Mackerel taken in *Smitu, J. V. C.: Natural History of the Fishes of Massachusetts, 28,3, . 295. 13 194 AMERICAN FISHES. the vicinity of Newport were found in the summer of 1857. Noone knew what they were. Mr. Earll writes as follows concerning the history of its increase: “« About Sandy Hook prior to 1850, almost nothing was known of the fish, as shown by the fact that about this time Mr. Robert Lloyd, a fisher- man at Seabright, was engaged in trolling for bluefish, having a contract with one of the hotels to take his entire catch. He secured a number of Spanish Mackerel (these being the first he had ever seen), which were carried with the bluefish to the hotel; but the proprietor knew nothing of their value, and buying them. ‘‘From this date they were taken more frequently, and soon were highly prized. They were caught wholly by trolling, the average catch being from ten to twenty fish to a boat daily. They continued to increase in number, or at least were more generally noticed by the fishermen, until 1866, when they were quite plentiful, becoming most abundant between 1870 and 1875. During that period it is said that they were often nearly as plenty as the bluefish, though comparatively few were taken, owing to the lack of suitable apparatus. It was not until the introduction of properly arranged gill-nets and pound-nets that the fishermen succeeded in securing considerable quantities, «Tt is claimed that their numbers have, since 1875, gradually decreased on the inshore grounds, though they are said to be as numerous as for- merly, eight to ten miles from land, where they remain beyond the reach of gill-nets and pound-nets. “‘Many of the fishermen of Chesapeake Bay never saw the species before 1875, though there are authentic records showing that individuals were occasionally taken in the haul-seines along the Eastern shores as early as 1860, and hauls of one and two hundred are reported by Dr. J. T. Wilkins in 1866.* It is very easy to explain the ignorance of the fisher- men as to the abundance of the species in that region, for, until recently, the fisheries of the Chesapeake appear to have been of small commercial importance, having been prosecuted only during the spring and fall by means of gill-nets and haul-seines. During the summer months, when the Mackerel are most plenty, no fishing of importance was done. Pound- nets were introduced into the Chesapeake region in 1875, and it was through their use that the fishermen came to know of the abundance of the species in these waters. “On the North Carolina coast most of the fishermen, and, indeed, a majority of the dealers, are still unacquainted with either the name or the value of the Mackerel, and when, in 1879, several thousand pounds of them were brought to Wilmington, the dealers refused to buy them, sup- «Prof, Baird, as we have seen, referred to extensive captures of this species in the lower Potomac and Chesapeake in 1854, and called attention to the fact that they were to be had salted in the Washington city fish market. THE SPANISH MACKEREL AND THE CEROES. 195 posing them to be a species of horse-mackerel (Orcynus), which they understood had no value as a food-fish. Since no purchasers could be found for them, they were finally thrown away. Farther south few have been taken, owing to the lack of suitable apparatus, as well as to the fact that the fishermen seldom fish beyond the inlets. The smack fishermen of Charleston catch a few on troll-lines during the pleasant weather of the spring and early summer, but they fish only occasionally in this way. ‘¢ Though the fishing is at present limited to certain localities, there is no reason to believe that the fish are absent from other places; on the contrary, it seems probable that, should proper apparatus be employed, the species could be taken at almost any point along the outer shore where the menhaden are abundant.’ C. R. Moore, of Johnsontown, Va., wrote in 1874: ‘‘ Spanish Mack- erel come in September and October and stay until frost. They are most numerous about the mouth of the York River, where a large number are caught in seines and salted. They bring about $40 a barrel.’’ There is no reason to believe that the present fishery will affect the future abundance of the species; for the catch is necessarily insignificant when the immense number of individuals in our waters is taken into account. There is no doubt that there have been important fluctuations in abundance in the past, and natural causes are certain, cause a like variation in the future. It is particularly important therefore, that the experiments which the U.S. Fish Commission has already made upon the artificial propagation of this species shall be as soon as possible brought to some practical outcome. The Spanish Mackerel of New England was a fish with spotted sides. The people of New England found a spotted mackerel and called it by the old familiar name; the people of the Middle States did likewise with a different kind of spotted mackerel. In like manner the names herring, alewife, shad, salmon, trout, perch, chub, and bass are applied to several different kinds of fish in different parts of the United States. There is only one clew to the manner in which the Spanish Mackerel of England was named. Rondeletius, who wrote in 1554, a book on marine fishes, «Libri de Piscibus Marinis,’’ speaks of this fish as occasionally occurring on the coast of France, but particularly abundant in Spain. How did our Spanish Mackerel get its name? English colonists, the world over, have always given to the native animals of the new continent, the names of those with which they were familiar in their ancestral home. 196 AMERICAN FISHES. The only other spotted fish which has been known to frequent our coast is the ‘* chub mackerel’’ or ‘‘ thimble eye,’’ a species closely allied to the common mackerel, but smaller, and distinguished by having larger eyes and less distinct dorsal markings, as well as by other characters. This was the ‘‘ Spanish Mackerel’’ of New England fifty years ago. Its name must have come to it from the ‘‘Spanish Mackerel’’ of England, the Scomber colias, described by Gmelin, with which, indeed, some authori- ties believe it to be identical, and which also is very similar to the common mackerel, Scomber scombrus, though smaller, with fewer stripes upon its back, and with circular spots of grey or brown upon the white sides, which in the common mackerel are pearly and immaculate. The question of the identity of the Spanish Mackerel of New England, with that of Old England, is not likely to be decided at present, for the former has entirely deserted our waters, though at one time extremely abundant. The origin of the name ‘‘ Mackerel’’ is in itself a curious subject of inquiry. Certain authorities derive it from the Old French maguercau, signifying a pander or go-between, from a popular tradition in France, that the Mackerel in spring follows the female shads which are called vierges, and leads them to their mates. Skeat and other modern ety- mologists reject this idea, and decide that the name comes from the Latin macus or maca, signifying a spot or stain. Still another theory is advocated by Dr. C. D. Badham, in his ‘* Prose Halieutics.’’ ««The word Mackerel is one of very old standing in our own vocabulary, and has most probably a northern origin ; but whether this be so or not, both the usually assigned Greek and Latin etymologies are equally inad- missible ; the Greek, which, either from the excellence of the flesh, its own personal happiness, or that which it confers on so many Mackerel- eaters, would conjure Mackerel from pakdoco¢g is obviously untrue, and particulary zzhappy ; nor is Mackerel ‘ quasi macularius,’ 7. e. the spotted, in lieu of what it is, a s¢riped fish, a less unfortunate attempt to fish out a meaning from the Latin. If we are to adopt any etymology where all are doubtful, Aldrovandi’s ‘ magarellos seu nacarellos e corporis nacritudine,’ seems the most plausible; the shot, lustrous surface of the belly and sides is certainly nacreous ; while we are distinctly taught in our Church cate- chism that in regard to a name, an M or N are indifferent, and in fact the change of one of these liquids into the other never offers any real difficulty in etymology. Touching the nomenclature of that particular kind called sometimes Spanish, sometimes Horse-Mackerel, though the latter adjunct THE SPANISH MACKEREL AND THE CEROES. 197 often expresses no more than size or coarseness—as in qualifying the words laugh, mushroom, chesnut, or radish,—it is quite possible in this case that it may merely be the translation of cavaé/o, which in that lan- guage not only means horse, but Mackerel as well. Concerning the opprobrious employment of this word to designate a certain class of vil- lains, called in Latin /enones, ard ruffiand in Italian, M. Lacépéde, after Belon, gives the following interpretation —‘ C’est 4 raison de la rencontre des maquereaux avec les petits aloses ou pucelles vers le temps ou celles-ci vont frayer avec les males, qu’on a donné ce vilain nom (maquererau), qu’il porte en France et dans quelques autres pays.’ ”’ THE CAROLINA POMPANO. THE POMPANOES. *¢ Lightly and brightly they glide and go The hungry and keen on the top are leaping The lazy and fat on the depths are sleeping.’” Wiiit1am MackwortH Praep, The Red Fisherman. HE Pompano, with its pleasing contours, its banner-like fins, and its scales glistening with the brilliancy of polished silver and gold, is one of the loveliest of our summer visitors. It is not an angler’sfish, nor is it a food-fish of importance from the commercial stand-point, yet it is con- fessedly the king of table-fishes, commanding almost fabulous prices in the markets of our great cities, and esteemed more highly than salmon or bass, moon-fish or Spanish mackerel. It figures in angling literature as ‘‘ the wood-cock of the seas’’—wherefore, the writer is unable to say. The genus Zrachynotus, to which our Pompanoes belong, is widely dis- tributed through the warmer parts of the Atlantic and Indo-Atlantic regions. Three species are peculiar to Asiatic waters, three have been found only on our own Pacific coast, one is limited to the waters of western Africa, one to those of the Caribbean, while of the four which are abundant on the Atlantic coast of North America, one ranges the wide world over, occurring in warm waters everywhere, one is found on the California coast, and one in Africa. The genus is entirely unknown in the waters of Europe. The species of the Pacific coast, Zrachynotus THE POMPANOES. 199 rhodopus, T. fasciatus and G. Kennedy’, are chiefly interesting to naturalists, and will not be discussed at length. The Pompanoes of our Atlantic waters, belonging as they do to a small, strongly specialized genus, are separated from each other by characters not likely to be noticed by casual observers. It is probable that the most unusual of them is more abundant than is now supposed, and that a more careful study of the fauna of the South Atlantic and Gulf States will show that they are frequent visitors. I have myself seen the Carolina and the Round Pompano sold under the same name in Charleston market, just as I have seen the young of four species of the herring family sold together indiscriminately in Ful- ton market, New York. The four species, though similar in general appearance, may easily be distinguished by differences in proportions and in the number of fin-rays. The commonest and by far the most important form, the Carolina Pompano, Zrachynotus carolinus, has the height of the body contained two to two and two-thirds times in the total length ; the length of the head five to five and one-third times; one of the caudal lobes four times. It has twenty-four to twenty-five rays in the second dorsal, while the anterior rays of the dorsal and anal fins, if laid backward, reach to the middle of the fin. It occurs in both the Atlantic and Pacific waters of the United States. On our eastern coast it ranges north to Cape Cod, south to Jamaica, east to the Bermudas, and west in the Gulf of Mexico, at least as far as the mouth of the Mississippi River. In the Pacific it is rare, and as yet known only from the Gulf of California, where it has recently been observed by Mr. C. H. Gilbert. Like the Spanish mackerel, the squeteague, and the bluefish, it is a sum- mer visitor, appearing in southern Massachusetts in June and July, departing in September. It is emphatically a warm water species. Although "it is at present impossible to ascertain the lower limit of its temperature range, it is probable that this corresponds very nearly to that indicated by a harbor temperature of 60° to 65° Fahr. The Pompano has never been known to pass the boundary defined by the low, sandy barrier of Cape Cod and its submarine extension, the Georges Bank. Like the shoals of Hatteras, the broad, slightly submerged sands of this region, with their swirling tides and fluctuations of tempera- ture, forbid the passage of many species. abundant either to the North or 200 AMERICAN FISHES. South. Both of our common Pompanoes were described by Linnzeus from South Carolina, but had never been observed north of Cape Hatteras until the summer of 1854, when Prof. Baird, at that time carrying on the first of the ichthyological investigations which have since made his name famous all the world over, discovered it near Great Egg Harbor. In his Report on the Fishes of New Jersey, he states that he had seen them taken by thousands in the sandy coves of the outer beach, near Beesley’s Point. These, however, were all rather small, scarcely exceeding a quarter to half a pound in weight. In 1863 he obtained both species in Southern Massachusetts, where in subsequent years they have frequently been captured. ‘«My first acquaintance with the Pompano in New England,’’ writes Prof. Baird, ‘‘was in 1863, during a residence at Wood’s Holl, where I not unfrequently caught young ones of a few inchesinlength. I was more fortunate in the summer of 1871, which I also spent at Wood’s Holl; then the Pompano was taken occasionally, especially in Capt. Spindle’s pound, and I received at different times as many as twenty or thirty, weighing about one and one-half or two pounds each. Quite a number were caught in Buzzard’s Bay and Vineyard Sound in 1872.” It is a fair question whether the Pompano has recently found its way into northern waters, or whether its presence was unknown because nobody had found the way to capture it. When Mitchill wrote on the fishes of New York in 1842 he had access to a single specimen which had been taken off Sandy Hook about the year 1820. I quote in full the observations of Mr. Stearns : ‘«The common Pompano is abundant on the Gulf coast from the Mississippi River to Key West, and, so far as I can learn, is rare beyond this western limit until the Yucatan coast is reached, where it is common. It is considered the choicest fish of the Gulf of Mexico, and has great commercial demand, which is fully supplied but a few weeks in the year, namely, when it arrives in spring. The Pompano is a migratory fish in the Pensacola region, but I think its habits on the South Florida coast are such that it cannot properly be so classed. «At Pensacola it comes in to the coast in spring and goes away from it in fall, while in South Florida it is found throughout the year. In the former section it appears on the coast in March in schools varying in num- bers of individuals from fifty to three or four thousand, which continue to ‘run’ until the latter part of May, when it is supposed that they are all inside. Their movement is from the eastward, and they swim as near to THE POMPANOES. 201 the shore as the state of the water will permit, very seldom at the surface so as to ripple or break the water, although sometimes while playing in shoal water they will jump into the air. “« Before any schools enter the bays certain ones will remain for days, or even weeks, in a neighborhood, coming to the beach during the flood tide to feed on the shell-fish that abound there and returning again to deeper water on the ebb-tide. The holes or gullies in the sand along the beach are their favorite feeding grounds on these occasions. Sharks and porpoises pursue the Pompano incessantly, doubtless destroying many. The largest numbers come in April, and sometimes during that month the first schools are seen entering the inlets, others following almost every day, until about June 1, when the spring run is said to be over. Every year they appear in this way at Pensacola and adjoining bays, although there are many more some years than others. As the abundance is judged by the quantity caught I think that the difference may lie more in the number of fishing days (pleasant ones) than in the real numbers of fish present. The sizes of Pompano that make up these schools are large or adult fish averaging twelve or fourteen inches in length, and small fish (probably one year old) averaging eight inches in length. The largest Pompano that I have seen measured nineteen and a half inches in length, and weighed six and a quarter pounds, the extremely large fish called Pompano of two or three times that size probably being another species. After entering the bays the schools of Pompano break up and the fish scatter to all parts where the water is salt and there are good feeding grounds. Except single individuals that are taken now and then, nothing is seen of Pompano until late in the fall, when they are bound seaward. In regard to its spawning habits nothing very definite has been learned. It has spawn half developed when it arrives and has none when it leaves the bays. Large quantities of the fry are seen in the bays all summer, which is some proof of its spawning inside. In June, 1878, I caught specimens of the fry varying in size from three-quarters of an inch to three inches in length. Very many schools of these sizes were also observed in July and August of the same and following years of 1879-’80. «« The schools of fry go to sea in August and September. The older or adult fish leave the coast in September and October in small schools, that are only seen and caught at the inlets where they happen to cross shoals or follow the beach. These Pompano of the fall are very fat and in every way superior to those caught in the spring. As before mentioned, the Pompano is found on the South Florida coast all the year. The sea-beach, from Tampa Bay to Charlotte Harbor seems to be its favorite feeding- ground owing to the quantity of shell-fish that occur there. It does not form in large schools as in the Pensacola region, and therefore is not taken in such large quantities by seine fishermen. ««Smacks from Mobile and Pensacola sometimes go to Tampa Bay for them. Ihave been told that Pompano are caught at Key West in con- £02 AMERICAN FISHES. siderable quantities by hook and line, and I have known of a few being taken in that manner at Pensacola. It feeds entirely upon small shell- fish, which are crushed between the bones of its pharyngeal arch.’’ The Round Pompano, 7. rhomboides, has the height of the body con- tained two to two and one-third times in the total length; the length of the head five to five and one-fourth times; one of the caudal lobes three and a-half to four times. In the second dorsal are from eighteen to twenty-one rays, in the second anal from sixteen to nineteen, while in the Carolina Pompano there are twenty-one to twenty-two. In the south it is sometimes called the ‘‘ Shore Pompano,”’ and is known in the Bermudas by the name ‘“‘ Alewife.’’ THE ROUND POMPANO. The Round Pompano is cosmopolitan in its distribution, occurring in the North and South Atlantic, and in various parts of the Indian Ocean. The young have been obtained in the harbor of Vineyard Haven, Mass., and at Beaufort, S. C. It is probable that the species is far more abund- ant in our waters than we now suppose it to be. The only well authenticated instance of the capture of the Pompano with hook and line are those recorded by S. C. Clarke. During ten win- ters of Florida angling he writes: ‘‘ I have only once seen this fish taken with the hook. My fish was taken on a rod with clam-bait, while fishing for sheepshead in April, 1875, in the Hillsboro River, near New Smyrna.”’ B. C. Pacetti, a veteran fishermen, assured Mr. Clarke that during forty years’experience, he had only known of two similar instances. The African Pompano, 7. goreensts, originally described from the THE POMPANOES., 203 Island of Gorea, on the west coast of Africa, resembles in general form the Round Pompano, though somewhat more elongate, while the head is larger, being contained four and a half times in the total length. The anterior rays of the dorsal and anal extend beyond the middle of the fin, if laid backward. In the number of the fin rays it corresponds most closely with the Round Pompano. I first became familiar with the species through examining a small specimen in the collection of my friend, J. Matthew Jones, Esq., of ‘‘ The Hermitage,’’ Smith’s Parish, Bermuda, in 1876, has since been repeatedly observed on our own coast. It is the largest of the Pompanoes. Dr. J. W. Velie obtained two large specimens in West Florida, and in 1879, Mr. Blackford sent to the National Museum a giant of the same species, taken at Jupiter Inlet, about two feet long, and weighing twenty-three pounds. It has since become evident that the species figured by Girard in the ichthyology of the United States and Mexican boundary, under the name Dofodon carolinus, is really Trachy- notus goreensis, and that its occurrence in the Gulf of Mexico is not unusual. In the Gulf of Mexico it is not unusual, being known at Key West as the ‘‘ Permit.’’ Stearns informs us that this fish is rather common along the lower end of the the Florida Peninsula, and is often taken in seines at Cedar Keys, and at the mullet fisheries of Sarasota and Charlotte Harbor, as well as about Key West. The Banner Pompano, 7. glaucus, has a somewhat elongate body anda small head. It is much thinner than either of the other species. Its sil- very sides are marked with four blackish vertical streaks; the best distinguishing mark is in the length of the first rays of the dorsal and anal, which extend back nearly to the tip of the caudal fin. It is a member of the West Indian fauna, and is represented in the National Museum by specimens from Pensacola, Key West, the Bahamas and the Bermudas. Stearns remarks that it is obtained frequently at Pen- sacola with the other species, but is never very common, is seen only in the spring, and is not valued as a food-fish. Professor Jordan tells me that it is not rare along the Carolina and Gulf coasts, and that at Pensacola, wherever it is known as the ‘Gall-topsail Pompano,’ it is held in low esteem. The allied species, Zrachynotus fasciatus, has lately been noticed by Jordan and Gilbert on the Pacific side of the Isthmus of Panama. 204 AMERICAN FISHES. Linnzeus classed the Pompano with the stickleback on account of the sharp spines on its dorsal fin. The young, like that of the swordfish, have along the posterior edges of the opercular bones, rows of strong spike-like spines, which entirely disappear with advancing age. The spawning grounds and breeding times of these fishes are not well known. Mr. Samuel C. Clarke states that the common Pompano spawns in March, in the open sea, near the inlet to Indian River, Fla. Mr. Stearns’ statement concerning the occurrence of the young about Pensa- cola has already been quoted. It is supposed that those visiting our northern coast breed in winter, at a distance from the shore, the eggs, like those of the mackerel, being lighter than the water and floating at or near the surface. The Pompanoes may, however, be truly migratory fishes, seeking the waters near the equator in winter, to follow a long coastwise migration, north and south in summer. They’ are rapid, powerful swimmers. Their food consists of mollusks, the softer kinds of crustaceans, and probably the young of other fishes. 5S. C. Clarke states that they have been known to bite at a clam bait. Scott remarks: ‘It is mullet- mouthed ; never takes a bait except by mistake.’’ Their teeth are very small and are apt to disappear with age. They are caught in set nets and Spanish cast-nets. Great quantities are secured in the Gulf of Mexico and in Mobile Bay, A few are taken every year in the traps on the New Jersey coast. The local demand for them is so great that they are not usually sent far away from the place where they are taken. In New Orleans, Mobile, Savannah, Charleston, or New York, they readily command the price of $1 to $1.50 a pound. The entire quantity sold annually in New York probably does not exceed three thousand pounds. Pompano means ‘‘ grape leaf,’’ and in Western Europe is appropriated by a very different fish. This name was applied to our fish by the Spanish colonists of America. The Cubans call the Pompano ‘‘ Palometa.’’ In South Carolina it is known as the ‘‘ Crevallé’’ or ‘* Cavally,’’ a corruption of Caballa, (horse). La Roche, in his ‘‘ Voyage to Canada,’’ published in 1542, wrote of ‘‘salmons, mullets, sturgeons, surmullets, bass, carps, pimperneaux, and other fresh water fish.’’ This is the earliest use of this name for an American fish ; the writer cannot have been acquainted with what we now call Pompano, but it is impossible to understand his meaning. THE POMPANOES. 205 In August, 1874, a party of the Fish Commission hauled a hundred fathom seine on the beach at Watch Hill, R. I., and much to our surprise a number of young Carolina Pompanoes were landed. They were less than two inches long, and were exceedingly graceful in their movements. They were kept alive for some weeks in aquaria. Ata short distance they looked like silver dollars swimming about on their edges. Twelve months later we were still more successful, obtaining the young of both species in Holmes’ Hole. The small Round Pompanoes, an inch or two in length, were very beautiful, their burnished sides shaded with tawny golden tints. In 1876, I became familiar with three species in the Bermudas, the most common of which was the Round Pompano. In the winter of 1875 a school of six or seven hundred were seined on the south shore of the islands. A large one was confined in the aquarium at ‘‘ Wistow Lodge,’’ the resi- dence of Hon. C. M. Allen. This aquarium is unique, being a circular basin, embowered in tropical vegetation, and aerated by a powerful fountain of sea water, forced up by a tide-wheel. In this limpid pool were many gorgeously-colored species, the angel-fish, the parrot-fish, the rainbow-fish, the Spanish-lady, the surgeon, the porcupine, and the ser- geant-major. Among them, as they softly floated, moving like soaring birds, flashed in and out the Pompano, with black-tipped, streaming fins, only plainly visible when momentarily at rest in some secluded corner of the basin. It was the only fish I have ever seen which appeared to possess the power of becoming phosphorescent at will. At night we could trace its nervous movements by occasional gleams of light, as the fish, turning one side toward us, touched with the other the floor of the basin. THE BONITO. BONITOES AND TUNNIES, Vext with the puny foe, the Tunnies leap, Flounce on the stream, and toss the mantling deep, Ride o’er the foamy seas, with torture rave, Bound into air, and dash the smoking wave. Oprtan, Translated by Jones, HE Bonito, Sarda mediterranea, is one of those fishes which appear to live chiefly in the open ocean, wandering hither and thither in large schools, preying upon other pelagic fishes, and approaching land only when attracted by abundance of acceptable food. Several of the smaller species of the group of Tunnies, to which it belongs, are known to sailors by thesame name. The common “Bonito’’ of England, Orcynus pelamys, two or three specimens of which have been detected in our waters since 1876, is what is here called the ‘‘Striped Bonito,’’ but the fish which most frequently and in greatest numbers approaches our shores is the one which is named at the head of this section. Almost nothing is known of its habits, and it is even impossible to define its geographical range with any degree of certainty, its distribution being very unlike that of any other fish with which we are acquainted. It may be said, howeve.. that it is found only in the Atlantic basin. On our coast it occurs in summer between Cape May and Cape Sable, though rarely north of Cape Ann ; occasionally off Cape Hatteras and the mouth of the Chesapeake and in the Gulf of Mexico. Specimens have been taken about the Can- aries and Madeira, at the Cape of Good Hope and in the Mediterranean. It has not been observed on the coast of Europe north of Gibraltar, no at the Bermudas. BONITOES AND TUNNIES. 207 The Bonito does not appear to have been abundant in former years ; it attracted but little attention in our waters before 1860, although it was alluded to in 1815 by Mitchill, in 1842 by DeKay, and in 1856 by Gill; none of these authors, however, regarded it as a common form, or cited any considerable number of instances of its presence. A note from Prof. J. Hammond Trumbull states: ‘‘ This fish used to be quite common, in some years, in the Stonington market. I havea note of a considerable number in market July 22, 1842, their first appear- ance for the season.”’ Storer remarked in 1846: ‘This species, called by the fishermen in Boston market the ‘Skipjack,’ and by those at the extremity of Cape Cod the ‘ Bonito,’ is very rarely met with in Massachusetts Bay. It is occasionally taken at Provincetown, and even at Lynn. At some seasons it is frequently caught at Martha’s Vineyard with trailing bait.’’ One of these fishes is a marvel of beauty and strength. Every line in its contour is suggestive of swift motion. The head is shaped like a minie bullet, the jaws fit together so tightly that a knife-edge could scarcely pass between, the eyes are hard, smooth, their surfaces on a per- fect level with the adjoining surfaces. The shoulders are heavy and strong, the contours of the powerful masses of muscle gently and evenly merging into the straighter lines in which the contour of the body slopes back to the tail. The dorsal fin is placed in a groove into which it is received, like the blade of a clasp knife in its handle. The pectoral and ventral fins also fit into depressions in the sides of the fish. Above and below, on the posterior third of the body, are placed the little finlets, each a little rudder with independent motions of its own, by which the course of the fish may be readily steered. The tail itself is a crescent-shaped oar, without flesh, almost without scales, composed of bundles of rays flexible, yet almost as hard as ivory. A single sweep of this powerful oar doubtless suffices to propel the Bonito a hundred yards, for the polished surfaces of its body can offer little resistance to the water. I have seen a common dolphin swimming round and round a steamship, advancing at the rate of twelve knots an hour, the effort being hardly perceptible. The wild duck is said to fly seventy miles in an hour. Who can calculate the speed of the Bonito? It might be done by the aid of the electrical con- trivances by which is calculated the initial velocity of a projectile. The Bonitoes in our sounds to-day may have been passing Cape Colony, or the Land of Fire, day before yesterday. 208 AMERICAN FISHES. In 1875, the earliest Bonito was taken in the Robinson’s Hole weir July 7, and two more came along July 24. They were not abundant until August, when many more were taken in Vineyard Sound by Oak Bluffs boats, trolling. The fishermen then believed that they were gradually increasing in numbers and importance and taking the place of the sque- teague which was disappearing. August 7 the weir at Cedar Tree Neck had taken nothing but Bonitoes, while those farther west at Menemsha Bight had taken only squeteague. The Bonito is not so great a favorite with the angler as it deserves to be. It is caught in the vicinity of Block Island with trolling-hooks. He bites sharply, like a bluefish. The best bait is an ordinary bluefish hook with a petticoat of red and white flannel, though the fish will also take any bluefish lure. In 1877 four smacks were constantly running between Block Island and New York, carrying each from 4,000 to 8,o00 Bonitoes a week, or perhaps 20,000 pounds. The yield of Block Island alone that summer was probably not less than 2,000,000 pounds. In one haul of the purse- seine bythe schooner ‘Lilian,’’ of Noank, 1,500 were taken; and in August, 1874, 1,200 in one pound-net. On the eastern shore of Virginia, Bonito are caught by harpooning, says Mr. C. R. Moore, and also with the hook. They are most numerous about the mouth of the York River. They come in June and leave in September. It is quite possible, however, that the Bonito referred to by Mr. Moore is quite another fish—the Cobia, E/acate atlantica. When tested side by side with the bluefish, at the same table, the Bonito seems not much inferior, though the flesh is somewhat softer and more perishable. The Bonito may be ranked among the many excellent food-fishes of our coast, and, in anycountry not so abundantly suppiied with finely-flavored kinds, it would be considered of the highest value. Their vitality is so great and their supply of blood so abundant that unless bled immediately after capture their flesh, especially in warm weather, is apt to deteriorate. Great quantities of them are taken to.New York, and there, as well as in Rhode Island and Connecticut, they are sold exclusively under the name of ‘‘ Spanish Mackerel,’’ at prices ranging from thirty-five to fifty cents a pound. This was the common practice in 1874, and has continued since. The statement made by Scott in 1875, that on account of their rarity BONITOES AND TUNNIES. 209 they were preferred to the bluefish and striped bass, would not now be true; his prediction that they would in time become as abundant as the blue- fish seems, however, during some years to have been almost verified. The dealers, by the change of name in the market above referred to, are able to obtain a high price for a fish which, under its own name, would be looked upon with suspicion. An absurd report that the Bonito was poison- ous was current in 1874, probably owing to the fact that similar fish taken in warm climates are sometimes deleterious. In 1875 the ordinary price in New York was one cent apiece, though in the wholesale markets they commanded the same price as bluefish, and many were sold, as has been stated, at the high rates of Spanish Mackerel. The market was so glutted that many of the vessels could not dispose of their cargoes. According to Stearns, our Bonito occurs also in the Gulf of Mexico, where it is everywhere abundant, and is found in the bays on the Florida coast. It usually moves, according to the same authority, at the surface of the water in small schools. At sea it is found throughout the year, and along the shore only in the summer. Small schools are sometimes taken in drag-seines in shallow water. Its market value at Pensacola is not great, although it has become an article of food. Awriter in the Providence Journal July, 1871, remarked: ‘‘ Last night I had a fish on my table which they said was a kind of Spanish Mackerel; the moment I tasted it I said it was a Bonito, having eaten it thirty years since, on my first voyage to India, and the taste had never been forgotten. It is the salmon of the sea. Mark its solidity of flesh, its great weight, its purity of taste, entire absence of the slightly decayed taste all fish has during warm weather. It is as nourishing as beef, and Bonito is the worthy rival of the Spanish mackerel and the sheepshead.’’ They seem first to have attracted the attention of New England authori- ties about 1865. Genio C. Scott, writing in 1875, remarks: ‘‘ His first arrival along our beaches and in our bays was about eight years ago, and his shoals have increased remarkably fast ever since his advent. Asa table luxury it ranks, with epicures, below the striped bass and bluefish, but because of its comparative rarity it commands a price rather above either. The numbers of this fish annually taken about the approaches to our harbors with the troll and in nets has increased so much that it bids fair to become nearly as numerous as the bluefish.’’ 14 210 AMERICAN FISHES. Each summer the schools now range the ocean between Cape Cod and Cape Hatteras, and about Block Island and the eastern end of Long Island fabulous quantities are often captured. The habits of the Bonito are similar to those of the bluefish, though it is, if possible, even more active and more an embodiment of perpetual and insatiable hunger. They come at the same time, they leave the coast simultaneously, they prey in company upon menhaden and mackerel, and together they are often caught in the fisherman’s gill-net or are detained in the labyrinths of the pound-net. The two kinds of fish do not, it is supposed, mingle, but the regiments rush to battle side by side. Sometimes two lines in one boat will fasten at the same time a bluefish and a Bonito. The Bonito, like the bluefish, appear to be attracted to our waters by the great schools of mackerel and menhaden, upon which they feed. Schools of Bonitoes cause more commotion than those of bluefish ; they spring out of the water, and are visible at long distances. They are attended by the same schools of screaming gulls and terns, and leave in their track similar ‘‘ slicks ’’ of oil and blood. The Bonito is an alien in our seas. It comes here only for food, and jn winter disappears entirely. It does not, like the bluefish, follow the trend of the coast to the south, to pass the cold months off the shoals of Hatteras. No very young individuals of this kind have ever been obtained in the western Atlantic, although young bluefish, from two to eight inches long, may be caught in summer by tens of thousands on any sand beach south of Monomoy. Genio C. Scott records the capture of one in Jamaica Bay in -1874 weighing less than a pound, and which he believes to have been hatched the previous year. The Fish Commission also has one of the same size taken off Southern New England. Charles Potter, of Norwalk, Conn., states that small specimens, six inches in length, were from 1870 to 1874 frequently taken late in the fall in the weirs at Fisher’s Island. A fish weighing ten pounds measures twenty-eight to twenty-nine inches; eight pounds, twenty-seven to twenty-eight inches ; seven pounds, twenty-six to twenty-seven inches; six pounds, twenty-five to twenty-six inches ; four pounds, twenty-two to twenty-three inches. There have not yet been found in the adults any traces of mature spawn, though one taken off Norwalk July 23, 1874, had the eggs well formed though not nearly BONITOES AND TUNNTIES. 211 mature. The breeding grounds of the Bonito, like those of the swordfish, are doubtless in some remote quarter of the globe. The swordfish spawns in the Mediterranean, if nowhere else. The species is cosmopolitar, and occurs in nearly every quarter of the globe, though perhaps nowhere in greater abundance than along our own shores. On the California coast occurs a closely related species, the Pacific Bonito, Sarda chilensis, which is thus described by Prof. Jordan: «This fish is everywhere known as the Bonito. The names ‘Spanish Mackerel,’ ‘Skipjack’ and ‘Tuna’ are also sometimes applied to it. It reaches an average weight of about twelve pounds, but the body is con- siderably longer and more slender than that of an Albicore of the same weight. It ranges from San Francisco southward to Chili, being abund- ant in Monterey Bay and about the Santa Barbara Islands in the summer and fall. It approaches to within half a mile of the shore, where, in company with the barracuda, it is taken in great numbers by trolling. It spawns in August or September. Its arrival is in early summer and its departure in the fall, at which season the young are said to be found abundantly in the kelp. It feeds chiefly on anchovies and squids. As a food-fish it is not held in high esteem, the fish being coarse. Great numbers are salted and dried, and are in that state considered far inferior to the barracuda and yellow-tail.”’ The Striped Bonito, Orcynus pelamys, already mentioned, is dis- tinguished from other species by the presence of four dark lines, which begin at the pectoral fin and run along the side of the belly to the tail, the sides of the common Bonito being of a silvery white. This species, is occasionally taken on the European coast, but has rarely been known to enter the Mediterranean. It is found in the Pacific on the coast of China and Japan, and is the species most commonly known to mariners as the Bonito, or Albicore, of the activity and voracity of which, as observed from the decks of vessels at sea, so many descriptions have been written. The first individual on our coast was that seen by Mr. Barnet Phillips in 1876. Another was taken by Mr. J. H. Blake at Province- town in July, 1877. Others have since been observed at Woods Holl and in the New York markets. The capture of the Striped Bonito is a favorite subject with Japanese artists. I have seen many drawings and prints in Japanese books, in which the characteristic form aid markings of this fish are faithfully delineated. The Japanese appear to catch it in great quantities, with rod, line, and hook. 212 AMERICAN FISHES. One of the American men-of-war of Revolutionary times was named “« Bonetta,’’ after the fishes of this group. In addition to the Striped Bonito, which is, properly, a Tunny, we have in American waters two other small Tunnies—the Long-finned Tunny, Orcynus alalonga, and the Silver-spotted Tunny, Orcynus argen- tivittatus—which have since 1877 been added to the fauna of the United States. The former of these two occurs in considerable abundance on the coast of California, and is there also known as the Albicore. Concerning it Prof. Jordan writes: ‘‘ This fish reaches a weight of about twelve pounds, and is much shorter and deeper than the Bonito of the Pacific. It is found from San Francisco southward, but is abundant only in the chan- nels about the Santa Barbara Islands. It seldom comes within six miles of the shore, and it is taken by trolling. It spawns about the middle of August, its arrival on the coast being determined by the spawning season. It usually is presentin June and July and disappears in the fall. It feeds chiefly on anchovies and squids, and various deep-water fishes (Mer/ucius, Sudis, Myctophum) are found in its stomach. As a food-fish it is even less valued than the Bonito, rarely selling for more than twenty to twenty- five cents. It is abundant, but of little economic importance, being usually fished for by sportsmen.”’ The Albicore, Orcynus alliteratus, known in the Gulf of Mexico, where it is confounded by the fishermen with other similar species, as the «¢ Bonito,’’ and in the Mediterranean by the names ‘‘ Tonnina’’ (Trieste), “‘Carcane’’ (Venice), and ‘‘Tauna’’ (Nice), has a geographical range very similar to that of the Bonito, except that it is found in the Pacific on the east coast of Japan, and in the Malay Archipelago. It has also been recorded from Cuba, Braziland the Bermudas. This active species, which attains the weight of from thirty to forty pounds, first made its appearance in our waters in 1871, when several large schools were observed by the Fish Commission in Buzzard’s Bay and the Vineyard Sound. Nearly every year since they have been seen in greater or less numbers ; but, as they are of little value for food, no effort has been made to capture them, nor are they often brought to the markets. This species, known at the Bermudas as the ‘‘ Mackerel,’’ is frequently seen in the markets at Hamilton and St. Georges. In the Mediterranean its flesh is considered to be very excellent. My BONITOES AND TUNNIES. 213 own experiments with it are hardly confirmatory of this statement, but in Southern Europe all the fishes of this family are very highly esteemed, and that it is not appreciated with us is perhaps due to the fact that we do not know how to cook them. I find the following note by Prof. Baird: “Flesh, when cooked, dark brown all around the backbone, elsewhere quite dark, precisely like horse-mackerel. Flesh very firm, compact and sweet.”’ Stearns records its frequent occurrence in the Gulf of Mexico, where he has observed individual specimens at Pensacola and Key West. The habits of this fish have not been specially studied, but there is no reason to doubt that they correspond closely with those of others of the same family. The Frigate Mackerel, Ausxzs thazard, is a species which has lately made its appearance in our waters, none having been observed before 1880, when they came in almost countless numbers. It is yet to be determined whether it is to be a permanent accession to our fauna. The United States Fish Commission obtained numerous specimens, twenty-eight bar- rels having been taken in a mackerel seine ten miles east of Block Island on August 3, 1880, by the schooner ‘‘ American Eagle,’’ Capt. Joshua Chase, of Provincetown, Mass. The Frigate Mackerel resembles, in some particulars, the common Mackerel; in others, the Bonito, the genus Awxzs being intermediate in its character between the Scomber and the related genera Pe/amys and Orcynus. It has the two dorsal fins remote from each other as in Scoméer, and the general form of the body is slender, like that of the Mackerel. The body is, however, somewhat stouter, and, instead of being covered with small scales of uniform size, has a corselet of larger scales under and behind the pectoral fins. Instead of the two small keels upon each side of the tail, which are so noticeable in the Mackerel, it has the single, more prominent keel of the Bonito and the Tunny. Its color is greyish- blue, something like that of the pollock, the belly being lighter than the back. Under the posterior part of the body, above the lateral line, are a few cloudings or maculations resembling those of the Mackerel. The occurrence of a large school of this beautiful species in our waters is very noteworthy, for the fish now for the first time observed are very possibly the precursors of numerous schools yet to follow. The Frigate Mackerel has been observed in the West Indies, and other 214 AMERICAN FISHES. parts of the tropical Atlantic, as well as on the coast of Europe. In Great Britain it is called the ‘‘ Plain Bonito.’’ It is not unusual in the Bermu- das, where it is called the ‘‘ Frigate Mackerel,’’ a name not inappropriate for adoption in this country, since its general appearance is more like that of the Mackerel than the bonito, while in swiftness and strength it is more like the larger members of this family. It is the ‘‘ Timberello’’ of the Adriatic fisher-folk. In the Mediterranean there is a regular fishery for this species, which is prosecuted from May until September, and they are also taken in great numbers in the Tunny nets. Since the first appearance of this fish many new observations of its abundance have been received. These fish appeared to have come in immense schools into the waters between Montauk Point and George’s Bank; and from Mr. Clarke’s statements it appears that they have been observed in small numbers by fishermen in previous years. Several vessels have come into Newport recently reporting their presence in immense numbers in the vicinity of Block Island. It will interest the ‘‘ ichthyo- phagists’’ to know that several persons in Newport have tested the fish, and pronounce it inferior to the bonito. Part of the flesh, that on the posterior part of the body, is white, but behind the gills it is black and rank, while the meat near the backbone is said to be of disagreeable, sour flavor. It is hard to predict what its influence will be upon other fishes already occupying our waters. Its mouth is small and its teeth feeble, so that it is hardly likely to become a ravager, like the bonito and the bluefish. There is little probability, on the other hand, that its advent will be of any special importance from an economical point of view, for its oil does not seem to be very abundant, and it will hardly pay at present to capture it solely for the purpose of using its flesh in the manufacture of fertilizers. It is very important that any observation made upon this species in years to come should be reported to the United States Fish Commission. The length of those I have seen ranges from twelve to sixteen inches, and their weight from three-quarters of a pound to a pound and a half or more. Those sent to New York market were part of the lot taken by the schooner «¢ American Eagle’’ and brought into Newport, whence they were shipped by Mr. Thompson, a fish dealer of that place. It would require from eighty to one hundred of them to fill a barrel; so the estimate of Capt. BONITOES AND TUNNIES. 215 Riggs, that there are a thousand barrels in one of the schools, shows how exceedingly abundant they must be. Capt. N. E. Atwood, of Provincetown, Mass., the veteran fisherman- ichthyologist, has examined the specimens, and is satisfied that they belong to the same species with a fish which he found abundant in the Azores in 1840, when, led by the reports of Cape Cod whalers, he went to these islands in search of the Mackerel, the mackerel fishing being poor at home. No Mackerel were found except the Frigate Mackerel. Reports. in 1887, concerning this occurrence of Mackerel in the Eastern Atlantic are very probably inspired by the presence of this fish. The Horse Mackerel, so-called, Orcynus thynnus, is the most important of the Tunnies, the ‘‘ Ton’’ or ‘* Tuna’’ of the Mediterranean, and the ‘‘Tunny’’ of English-speaking people. The distribution of this fish corresponds more closely with that of the ordinary species of the Atlantic, since it occurs not only in the Mediter- ranean and the Western Atlantic north to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, but also on the coast of Europe to the Loffoden Islands, latitude 69°. Of this fish, as found in American waters, our naturalists have not much to say, the species, although abundant at certain seasons of the year off particular parts of the coast, being not a very familiar one to our writers. They seem to be rather a northern fish, and are said by Storer to make their first appearance on our shores about Provincetown early in June, remaining until October. Of late years they seem to be increasing in abundance northward, becoming more and more common during the summer season at Newfoundland. In 1878 Capt. Henry Webb, of Milk Island, near Gloucester, harpooned and killed thirty of these monsters, weighing in the aggregate at least thirty thousand pounds. They had entered his pound in pursuit of small fish, cutting without difficulty through the netting. One had his stomach full of small mackerel. According to Capt. Atwood, on their first appearance in Massachusetts Bay they are very poor, but by the beginning of September become quite fat and are very much hunted for the oil, the head and belly especially furnishing sometimes as many as twenty gallons. They are harpooned on the surface of the water, much like the Sword-fish. The early traditions of this fish in Massachusetts Bay speak of them as being sometimes so tame as to take food from the hand; but they have 216 AMERICAN FISHES. long since givenup this engaging habit. This species attains a very great size. One specimen, taken in 1838 off Cape Ann, measured, according to Dr. Storer, fifteen feet in length, and weighed one thousand pounds, while still larger individuals than this are known to have been captured. Their food while in our waters consists, it is said, mainly of menhaden, of which they destroy a vast number. Their inclosure in the fishermen’s nets is not much desired, as they are apt to become entangled in them and to do much injury in their efforts to escape. They are pursued by the killer whales, before which they flee in great terror. A graphic descrip- tion of this pursuit is given below in the words of Capt. Atwood. Strange to say, although highly prized in the Old World from the time of the ancient Romans to the present day, they are seldom, if ever, used for food in the United States, where their flesh is not esteemed, being rarely, if ever eaten, although much used for mackerel bait. It is, how- ever, more in favor in the Provinces. Although occurring in large numbers and of remarkable size, no effort is made toward their capture; and though not unfrequently taken in weirs and pounds along the coast, they are always allowed to rot on the shore. Occasionally a portion of the flesh may be used as food for chickens, but seldom, if ever, for human consumption. In the Mediterranean the Tunny is taken in large nets, known as “‘madragues,’’ similar in many respects to the so-called ‘‘traps’’ of Secon- net River in Rhode Island. The fish are used partly fresh and partly salted, and they are put up in oil to a considerable extent and largely consumed in all the Latin countries of Europe. Considerable quantities are salted and canned, and canned Tunny of European manufacture is imported to New York in small quantities. The flesh is dark and not usually attrac- tive, although wholesome. They appear to attain a greater size in America than in Europe, one of five hundred pounds in the Mediterra- nean being considered rather a monster, while in America their weight is not unfrequently given at from twelve to fifteen hundred pounds. Nothing definite is known in regard to their mode of reproduction. The eggs are said to be deposited early in June, and the young at hatch- ing, according to Yarrell, weigh an ounce and a half, reaching a weight of four ounces by August, and thirty ounces by October. Mr. Matthew Jones, of Halifax, Nova Scotia, writes: ‘‘The Tunny is very common on the eastern coast of Nova Scotia in summer, and is known to fishermen and others as the ‘Albicore.’ The Rev. J. Ambrose BONITOES AND TUNNIES. 217 informs me that it regularly visits St. Margaret’s Bay every summer, several specimens being taken and rendered down for oil. They were particularly abundant in 1876. They are not seen in the Basin of Minas.’’ According to Dr. Fortin the Horse Mackerel is quite abundant in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, especially in the pays of Chaleur and of Gaspé, and also in the Straits of Belle Isle and Blancs Sablon Bay. It is taken in increasing numbers in the gulf, partly by spearing and partly by baiting. For this latter purpose strong steel hooks are used tied to solid lines and baited with herring. This fishing is prosecuted more particularly in the Bay of Chaleur and off Caraquette, where in 1863 over one hundred were captured. The fishing is quite exciting, although tiresome and requiring a good deal of skill, as in the efforts of the fishes to escape they pull with such violence as to endanger the lives of the fishermen by dragging them overboard.* Capt. Atwood contributes the following note on Horse Mackerel in Cape Cod Bay: ‘ «« They don’t come till the weather gets warm. We don’t see them at first when we begin setting mackerel nets, but about June they are liable to appear, and we find holes in the nets. Sometimes in September they gill them for the sake of their oil. My brother had forty-seven holes through one eighty-yard nei in one night. When they strike a net they go right through it, and when they go through it the hole immediately becomes round. It looks as if you could put a half bushel through it. I said in my Lowell Institute lectures that a shark in going through a net would roll himself up in it, but the Horse Mackerel get right through, and the hole they cut could be mended in five minutes. The fishermen don’t dread them much because they do the nets so little injury. They remain with us through the summer and early autumn, when they are killed for the oil. When they are here they feed upon any small fish, and when menhaden were here I have seen them drive the harbor full of them. I have seen the Horse Mackerel swallow dogfish whole weighing eight pounds. As fast as we got out the livers of the dogfish they would catch them and eat them. Therewas a great deal of whiting here at that time. They have almost totally disappeared. The Horse Mackerel seems to be the enemy of all kinds of fish. There is nothing to trouble the Horse * Canadian Fishery Report for 1862-63. 218 AMERICAN FISHES. Mackerel until the killer comes, and then they know it, I tell you. Then the Horse Mackerel will run! Some fishermen say that they have seen a killer poke his head out of the water with a Horse Mackerel in his mouth. I have known a Horse Mackerel to yield twenty-three gallons of oil. The average size is about eight feet in length.’’ This is a book devoted to American Fishes, but the Tunny, though an American fish, is not the foundation of an American fishery. In time we shall no doubt have a tunny fishery of our own, and as a step toward the consummation of that result, I quote a description of madrague fishing in Sicily, from the ever-delightful pen of Dr. Badham: “Tt was early in the morning of a lovely August day—never since we had been in Sicily had the water looked more blue, nor the cactus-crowned heights of Monte Pelegrino more inviting—that we put off in a boat from the Bay off Palermo, and ordered our barcaroles to pull for the tonnaro, or place where the madrague lay, about a mile from shore; to seaward all was smooth ; not a ripple broke the oleaginous expanse stretched before us, mapped with floating corks, and indicating, as accurately as on a ground-plan, the whole extent and figure of the mighty decoy—a town in- deed in size; having pulled from one end to the other of the long faubourg, to the first submarine barrier, and then glided over it, we rowed with increased speed between battlements of cork and motionless buoys, and soon came to the spot, towards which some boats a little in advance of our own had been driving a shoal of thunnies, like a flock of timid sheep. ‘Ecco la camera della morte; siamo giunti!’ exclaimed both rowers at once, shipping their oars, and staring down into the depths to see what might be there : we did the same ; but not discovering anything, the men resumed the oars, and in a few seconds laid us alongside an an- chored barge,—one or two, which were placed as guards over each end of the ‘chamber of death.’ The first served as the point ad’ appui for the nets, which were being worked up from the near side of the opposite vessel. A crowd of fishermen were busy tugging away at what seemed to our impatience an endless cordage ; by the shortening of which, however, as the boat duly received it, layer after layer, coil upon coil, and fold upon fold, they were slowly bringing up the reticuled wall from the bottom. Whilst waiting the result we had time to notice the fine propor- tions of the men, who, leaning over the sides of the boat, or standing on its benches, exhibited their athletic and agile forms picturesquely grouped and engaged in all those varieties of muscular action which each man’s share in the labors severally demanded. A fine figure is, according to Oppian, a prime qualification in a fisherman : First be the fisher’s limbs compact and sound, With solid flesh and well-braced sinews bound: BONITOES AND TUNNIES. 219 Let due porportion every part commend, Nor leanness shrink too much, nor fat distend.* And more perfect figures than theirs poetry could not describe, nor the classic chisel of Greece portray ; every man was an Academy model; to perfect symmetry of limb were added dark flashing eyes, jet black hair, beard, and moustache; irreproachable noses, ivory teeth, and the rich- colored complexion of the South. What a contrast to a body of sandy-haired, freckled, hard-featured, stockingless Highlanders, landing from a Scotch steamboat, and challenging, by their self-satisfied air, atten- tion to an ungainly gait and knock-kneed deformity of person! Presently a simultaneous shout proclaimed, ‘La pipa! la pipa!’—our own boatmen, after repeating the cry, informed us that a sword-fish, or pipa, as the Palermo sailors designate it, had been seen to enter the decoy with the thunny, and must now be in the net, as the flooring had been drawn up several fathoms, the pipa presently swam towards the surface, to see what was the matter, and some well-practised eyes having caught a first glimpse of him, the crews testified their delight by three loud vocifera- tions. Frightened by the noise and the confused scene above, the long form of the fish might soon be distinguished, shooting now here, now there, athwart the hempen court ; he rose at last, in much agitation, to the top, but instantly dived down again, scattering the spray far and wide with a lash of his powerful tail. This plunge only carried him among the trembling thunnies, pelamyds, and alalongas, which covered the bottom of the net; then up he came again, to find every eye looking fishy, and every hand ready to deal the fatal blow. Like a startled horse in a high- fenced paddock, the sword-fish now careered round and round the enclosure, vainly seeking an exit by which to bolt, but finding none, he backed a moment, then, swifter than thought, rushed on the net, ran his long weapon through, and made a large hole in the meshes ; but becoming hopelessly entangled, his fate was sealed, and death followed fast; one lusty arm throws a heavy harpoon, and misses; another with more steady aim, and a lighter missile, hits and wounds the fish, who, staggered at the blow, flounders from side to side, while the clear blue waves are stained all round with his blood; in a few seconds a dozen barbed poles lie deep in the poor pipa’s flank, and after throwing up a whirlpool of discolored water, as the blows of the fishermen rain faster and faster upon their victim, the crimson of the flood deepens, and in less than a minute from the first wound the gashed carcass of the great scomber is poised up safely into the boat, with a triumphant shout. ‘Five scudi, my lads, for our share !’ exclaims one of the excited mariners, as they lay him at last at the bottom : and ‘ Bless the Virgin and St. Anthony,’ says another, ‘there is not much damage done this time to the net.’ ‘ Now, signor, we shall presently see the thunny,’ cried out our barcaroles; and accordingly, as * Oppian, J. Jones’s translation. 220 AMERICAN FISHES. the sieve-like flooring of the ‘camera della morte’ was drawn within a few feet of the surface, a mixed multitude of large fish, chiefly of the scomber family, all in violent agitation at what they saw and heard (for the men were now gaily singing at the ropes), dashed and splashed about, till the whole enclosure was covered with foam. The work of slaughter soon commenced, and these great creatures, despatched by blows, were hauled without difficulty on board the barge.* The chamber being now empty, was let down again for new victims, while we followed the cargo just shipped to the land-place ; thence, preceded by two drummers, off we went in a procession to the Mercato Reale, where we found many great eyeless thunny (the produce of a still earlier haul) already piled up in bloody heaps on the flags.t Besides these, there were alalongas, whose long pectorals had been draggled in the mire, with many other large and curi- ous fish, and the formidably armed heads of two or three sword-fish, fixed on end in the upper part of the woodwork of the same stalls, where their huge bodies were exposed for sale below, cut up into bloodless white masses, like so many coarse fillets of veal; while whole hampers of labride attracted the least attentive eye by their lovely variegated and ever-vary- ing tints. * Sometimes, we are told, when a very colossal thunny is caught, one of the crew mounts his back, and will ride him, as Arion did the dolphin, several times round the inner enclosure, patting and taming him before he is stabbed like his smaller companions. } The eyes, being a perquisite of the crew, are torn out the first thing, to make oil for their lamps : the gills also and the roes, which are eaten fresh, are commonly ripped out 1nd deposited in baskets by themselves. These various mutilations of the thunny render its appearance in tue markets at all times unsightly and unin- viting. In some cases, however, the fish are transferred in the first instance into an inner shed or shamble, where a whole troop of them is speedily cut to pieces, and the sections (each of which has a name and a market price of its own) are then exposed for sale. The young thunnies do not appear in public at all till they have been first carefully boiled in sea-water, and become thon marine, THE BUTTER-FISH. THE HARVEST FISHES, After the battle, the peace is dear, Fishers must work when the treacherous sea After the toil, the rest; Smiles with a face of light, After the storm, when the skies are clear, Though the deep bed, where their fortunes be, Fair is the ocean’s breast. May be their grave ere night. Out in the gold sunshine Out in the gold sunshine Throw we the net and line ; Throw we the net and line ; The silvery chase to-day The silvery lines to-day Calls us to work away, Flash in the silvery spray, So throw the line, throw—Yo, heave ho ! So throw the line, throw—Yo, heave ho! Herman Merivate, The Fisherman’ s Song. ‘Tee Rudder-Fish family, Stromateida, is represented on the coast by three species, two of which are important food-fishes, and in our Pa- cific waters by one species, the so-called ‘‘ California Pompano.’’ The family is a small one, and is widely distributed throughout warm seas. The ‘‘ Butter-fish’’ of Massachusetts and New York, Stromateus triacan- thus, sometimes known in New Jersey as the ‘‘ Harvest-fish,’’ in Maine as the ‘‘ Dollar-fish,’’ about Cape Cod as the ‘‘Sheepshead,’’ and ‘“ Skip- iack,’’ in Connecticut as the ‘“‘ Pumpkin-seed,’’ and at Norfolk as the “ Star-fish,’’ is common between Cape Cod and Cape Henry. It has been observed south to South Carolina and north to Maine. It has been found in some abundance along the north side of Cape Cod in nets with bass and mackerel. It is a summer visitor, appearing in our waters in company 222 AMERICAN FISHES. with the mackerel and disappearing about the same time. It appears to breed in the sounds and in the open ocean in June and July, and the young are found in great abundance in July, August, and September, swimming about in company with certain species of jelly-fishes. During these months several large species of jelly-fish, or sun-squalls, are found abundantly floating about in waters near the shore, and each one of these is almost invariably accompanied by ten or twelve, or more, young Butter-fishes, which seem to seek shelter under their disks, and which, perhaps, may obtain a supply of food from among the numerous soft- bodied invertebrates which are constantly becoming attached to the floating streamers of their protecters. The young fish, thus protected, range from two to two and a half inches in length. I have seen fifteen, and: more, sheltered under an individual of Cyanea arctica not more than three inches in diameter. This refuge is not always safe for the little fishes, for they sometimes are destroyed by the tentacles of their protector, which are provided, as every one knows, with powerful lasso cells. The little fish seem to rise at the approach of danger and seek refuge among the lobes of the actinostome. They are thus protected from the attacks of many kinds of larger fishes which prey upon them, though they themselves often fall victims to the stinging power of the jelly-fish and are devoured. The habit of thus seeking shelter is very much like that of the rudder-fish. The Butter-fish attains an average size of seven or eight inches in length, and is very often taken in the pounds. The fishermen of Noank, Conn., tells me that a barrelful of them is often taken in one haul of a pound-net. They are much valued for food at New Bedford. When sent to New York they command a good price, and the poundmen at Lobsterville sometimes eat them and consider them better than scup. Their flavor is excellent, resembling that of the mackerel, though less oily; they are very palatable when nicely boiled. At many places, for instance, Noank, and Wood’s Holl, they are thrown away. Storer stated that they were extensively used as manure in certain parts of Massachu- setts. No observations have been made upon their food, though, since their mouths are nearly toothless, it seems probable that they subsist, for the most part, upon minute vertebrates. These fishes are remarkable on account of their brilliant, iridescent colors, which, in freshly caught individuals, are as beautiful as those of a dolphin. The Harvest-fish, Stromateus alepidotus, has not been observed north of THE HARVEST FISHES. 223 New York. Mi§tchill referred to it in his work on the fishes of New York, published in 1815, saying that it derived its common name, ‘ Harvest- fish,’’ from the fact that it usually appeared during harvest time. DeKay, too, mentions having had several specimens in his possession. It is somewhat abundant at the mouth of the Chesapeake, and along the Southern coast. In the Gulf of Mexico it is rather rare ; occasionally it is taken in seines at Pensacola. Dr. Giinther, in his ‘‘ Catalogue of the Fishes of the British Museum,’’ makes the astonishing statement that he has seen specimens from Lake Champlain. The species ranges south to Bahia, Brazil. It is not commercially valuable except at Norfolk, Va., where it is consumed for food in large quantities, its market name being “‘ Whiting.”’ The California Pompano, Stromateus simillimus, is thus described by Prof. Jordan: “« This species, known here as the Pompano, reaches a length of eight inches, and a weight of rather less than half a pound. It occurs along the entire coast of California and Oregon, being most abundant about Santa Barbara and Soquel, and is not known from farther south than San Diego. It appears in schools chiefly in the summer and fall; occasion- ally, also, during the winter, its times of arrival and departure being quite variable. It is said that it was an extremely rare visitant till about 1870, and that its abundance since then has steadily increased, it being now often found in greater quantities than can be readily sold. It feeds on worms, small crustacea, &c. Nothing special is known of its breeding habits. As a food-fish it is held in the highest repute, the price of indi- vidual fish ranging from two to four for a ‘quarter.’ Its flesh is fat, rich, and excellent.’’ The Black Rudder-fish, Lirus perciformis, is also called by the fishermen “‘Log-fish’’ and ‘‘Barrel-fish.’? It has been noticed at various points along our coast from New Jersey to Nova Scotia, where schools of them were several times observed off Halifax in 1877. It has hitherto been considered very rare north of Cape Cod. I cannot doubt that it will be hereafter found at least as far south as Cape Hatteras, and probably along the whole length of our Atlantic coast. The habits of this fish are peculiar in the extreme. They are almost always found in the vicinity of floating barrels and spars, sometimes inside of the barrels; hence the fishermen often call them ‘‘ Barrel-fish,’’ though the most usual name is ‘ Rudder- 224 AMERICAN FISHES. fish.’’ They are occasionally taken in lobster-pots. When cruising in Fish Commission yacht ‘‘ Mollie,’’ off Noman’s Land, July 13, 1875, we observed numerous specimens swimming under floating spars and planks. Sometimes as many as from fifty to seventy-five were obseryed under a single spar, a cloud of shadowy black forms being plainly visible from the deck. We went out to them in a row-boat and succeeded in taking thirteen of them in the course of a day. After the first thrusts of the dip- net they grew shy and sought refuge under the boat, under which they would sink far below our reach. A lull of a few moments would bring them back to the log under which they had clustered until disturbed again. When the boat was rowed away they followed in a close-swimming school until we gained full speed, when they suddenly turned, as if by one im- pulse, and swam back to the log or spar. Once they followed us about two hundred yards from the spar, and then leaving us retreated to their old shelter, reaching it some time before we could turn the boat and row back to it. I had before this supposed them to be quite unusual, but on that one day we must have seen, at the lowest computation, two hundred or two hundred and fifty. They doubtless have been given the name of Rudder-fish by the sailors who have seen them swimming about the sterns of becalmed vessels. THE BLACK RUDDER-FISH. When the Fish Commission steamer has been dredging off Halifax, I have several times noticed schools of them hovering around her sides. They doubtless gather around the logs for the purpose of feeding upon the hydroids and minute crustaceans, and perhaps mollusca which accumulate THE HARVEST FISHES. 225 around them. Their stomachs were found to contain amphipod crusta- ceans, hydroids, and young squids. They are doubtless to some degree protected by the spars under which they congregate, in the same manner as their kindred, the Butter-fish, which swim under the disk of the jelly-fish. Their colors undergo considerable change from time to time, possibly at the will of the fish. The Rudder-fish attains the length of ten or twelve inches, and is excellent eating. DeKay states that the fishermen of New York, in 1842, called this species the ‘‘Snip-nosed Mullet,’’ but this name does not appear to have become permanent. The Rudder-fish occasionally follows ships across the Atlantic. A sin- gle individual was taken at Penzance, in Cornwall, in October, 1879, and is now in the collection of Sir John St. Aubyn, at ‘‘ Michaels Mount.’’ 15 THE CAVALLY. THE CAVALLY AND OTHER CARANGOIDS, Swift speed crevallé over that watery plain, Swift over Indian River’s broad expanse. Swift where the ripples boil with finny hosts, Bright glittering they glance ; And when the angler’s spoon is over them cast, How fierce, how vigorous the fight for life ! Now in the deeps they plunge, now leap in air Till end’s the unequal strife. Isaac McLe.ian. alee members of the family Cavangid@, which is closely allied to the mackerel family, are distinguished chiefly by the form of the mouth, and by the fact that they have uniformly but twenty-four vertebra, ten abdominal and fourteen caudal, while the mackerel have uniformly more, both abdominal and caudal. They are carnivorous fishes, abounding everywhere in temperate and tropical seas. On our own eastern coast there are at least twenty-five species, all of them eatable, but none of them of much importance except Pompanoes. On the California coast there are two or three species of this family, of small commercial importance. Caranx hippos, the Cavally of the Gulf of Mexico and Eastern Florida—the ‘‘ Horse Crevallé’’ of South Carolina—occurs abundantly on our Southern coast, and has been recorded by Prof. Poey from Cuba and by Cope from St. Christopher and St. Croix. It is generally dis-. tributed throughout the West Indies, and is found along the Pacific coast the Gulf of California to Panama. The species was originally described THE CAVALLY AND OTHER CARANGOIDS. 227 from specimens sent from South Carolina by Garden to Linneus. The name of this fish is usually written and’ printed ‘ Crevallé,’’ but the form in common use among the fishermen of the South, ‘‘ Cavally,’’ is nearer to the Spanish and Portuguese names, Cava/ha and Cadalla, meaning