(@ G@ lee . F 7 Zo 9FE9226n T0000 UA SSHUDNOD AO AUVUEII ad ee Aa . AMERICAN FISHES. mio a, eS Swear EE ey, . Late s oes AMERICAN FISHES oo FORWEAK EREA RISE GAME AND FOOD FISHES NORTH AMERICA WITH ESPECIAL REFERENCE TO HABITS AND METHODS ORSCARIURE oe COPYRIGHT Fes. “OCT 131888 - ISTO, WASHINGTON: BY G. BROWN GOODE Assistant Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution ; Corresponding Member of the Zoological Society of London, the Deutsche Fischeret Verein, the National Fish-Culture Association of Great i Britain, the Northern Fisheries Society of Japan, etc., etc.; late United States Commisstoner of Fisheries, and Commissioner to the International Fisheries Exhibitions in Berlin and London. WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS NEw-YORK: STANDARD BOOK CO. 1888. . = = ? x : ADR i es ie hi \ wt > t i { er es \ is} a wr d _ 67 PARK (eee ENGRAVINGS MADE BY THE PHOTO ENGRAVING CO, PLACE, NEW YORK. 2 Copy RIGHTED 1887. DED ArTON. 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 ; PROn. aNKIEO! TH. GIGLIOLY of Florence ; Dr. ALBERT C. L. G. GUNTHER, of the British Museum; Dr. JAMES HECTOR. of New Zealand ; PRO wA- eee Ubi Orme. ofWiEnecht,; 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 PMiItE SAUV AGE, of Paris ; PROE Hae OWE i Of stockholm: Don EERE IRE POY: sof Havana: DR weANZ Sit UNDACENER on Vaenna: 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 in Berlin and Lon- don, and with the hope that tts publication may lead to a wider popular appreciation, tn America, of the tmportance and interest of Ichthyological Science. ie se ye Je recongnieu, sonnant sa grosse conche, Glaugue, Protée, Nerée, et mille autres dieux et monstres marins. Veismes ausst nombre injiny de potssons, en especes diverses, dancants, volants, voltigeants, combattants, man- geants, respirants, belutants, chassants, dressanis escar- - mouches, faisants embuscade, composants trefoes, mar- chandants, jurants, scbuttants. Lin un coing la pres vetsmes Artstoteles, tenant UME lanterne, expiant, considerant, le tout redigeant pay escripe. PANIAGRUEL, V., XXX1. a - 7 Quis, nisi vidisset, pisces sub undas natare crederet. LINN#US. CONTENTS: Page. Wa AEC ER acta ecm ress cc oa, toes ee ee tee Mma cocci Luedcwivd ond wwadin: x1 I OA APMC een ae a evs e an eee se wee ub le Che s saisgelsoe Guus fe cGace I MC RCH CM tee ten 5 a0 UN ay RES, ee os wh cach studs eunvs ence ie The Striped 2B LOE hs SR SN eee) Se Ma er i Seer ine eee 22 mine White Bass and the: Vellow Bass. ...cccsccsceceosce. SCE GAPRT SED 22 MS MMOLE CRIT LIL eee 5 SE CB SSS Oca ioc a Sawa waked oh 35 RENE SS CNR ee een ee 2 PART NC eae iss ty Uta end Soe RS cok 39 CAPES ARATE OW LISW Ao. ied ovine danse. cudscvohldecuveiececeiiauosss A EP LENSE I Ie at. Le 00> ooo sass Sd eGR Sook oaks 54 MOLE A ISIVES NIE PCIE AUIES <0 ac csodes de swashs oavadehdebeohiadoese cen. 64 ED GAS CEN TEE! DUEL I RR SUE a1 st ea 72 LUE STZ GES DUTIES AS li et oat maple SNe. Sine ate Ane ea gh en 83 MES COPPA Ane the: Mary NMG ec.3sshe odes ous sesbaodsrérevcss\ceeos> 2 Se RO TLS PAA 2h MOPAR, oo YH se iat Mg Se etd Us. ova é cai ve IOI 12 DE SPU AUSIIG keen Sac OG Ee ET Ot EO OP LEED OV GEE ES 258 5 NN sO ee 123 “PUSS CRUISES LOD, IRIS TED Porn| ee a A I 129 2 2G LODE OT ILD 6 1B) OL een ae Pe er 136 BELTR WOT EES OTE TL DIS TE ge re 144 LYS SEEIE EST ORS, EN RLS SS SE UR TP 1507 MU RPV TEEN EAD EAI CCR IS ice oS eve evivocevnech doko ese): 163 Ee SPamash Wie kezel and the (er OCS co civsescecsccscwiee’cchccaiecascoses. 184 LU PUTO TLD OS 5 iste es es 198 aK AM EERTCAIN: TEES FIPS The Lar vest, FUShes suv roanen. va eee aia cesarean ee Ree 221 The Cavally and OGr Cara werd warns see TAaie raat meri taw ak oS eee 226. Sword Fish, Spear L0sh and CUMASS FIG inant aati ec ee {220 De. OSC FUYN GID TES AULHES, ici ete ae pee Ee eialvisialeein'elaeis 0.0. e eee 257 Pike, MUSReUMGH ne Qind Tate CIC arate canis Sate sfak oe Meet eee ee 274 Tato (Choe el and POT HOLS SHan. ots eee ee eee Soe 287 SCUDINS CHE (GUKNOAL ES sialon Seki Minako Ree Se Eee EOE 307 Flalibut, FUGYESE Onl LLOUHUCIE woe ae ee eee eee ECE oe 307 Cod, Pollock, PL@ddock Gd TIDRCiA. Soya eee shee el ee ee B33: TRCN NBLVCES Ree oe OOO LO ORE is JOR ee 5 eee 365 The Cat ish 07 PUUMWGOD . Sc aluielinee Meiiesis+ poet eee eee ep eee eee 376 Ave SLL IME OG WIS HATES ial ict yea) enter este sens elacre te eee 28 Carp, Dince and MNO inion cus sacs tia fUh ss si0'ss 2s alee sine ces Se eee AII DT hee SCUMOM Forte es ee OT Ee ONE A441 The: Salnon Prowse pi) teks ON nck. ne 454 The BORC LOU ee ee “es Lagat wale edo dae ee A62 The Brook: T FOULS OF CHATS nisin toe aut ce rl d Leer rel oe ee 469 The PACyic. SAUMONS 0c Pah eo apiece on Oe 8 dag POSER wel e oee eE eEEEEe 480 I Be GOUT BY Seon rion 90/20 0.332 CONS Gab CEB NCE neGdSN ocd ben scab aN SIacdsANeyGo0 20. 484 Phe Whaite-jishes and (é SMCUS.. 0. 2.....2-- chs agrielaielisle helealelb siewiots cree erent 488 TG oe geet Tas ceniey eaipe ae GRP ot 1 AY EN eee EL EAR OEY a EMA MSMR cari 493 PROLOG OL. ‘Asics pev ?eydvohoyycopey. ATHENZUS: Detpnosophia. 66 ‘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 fornaturalists, 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 x11 AMERICAN FISHES. who desires to make a serious study of the technical portion of American ichthyology. My own httle 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 Charities 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. TOLD OG. OTe. x11 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 tor Dre jordan, Wr Bean, Capt. Collins; Mr: EKarll 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. ‘hiesnlessot(atonest and Stream,” ““ihe American Field” and “*ahe 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. ier molishabield, << Land and Water?” sand <“hishing 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 Englsh writers. Yet 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 tome. 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. Pe OL OG Ey 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- node Dhatethie blessing. ofst. Peters master be upon all that hate contentions, and love quietnesse, and virtue, and go a-angling.”’ Gr Ba Gs SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 2 WASHINGTON, Dec. 1, 1856. 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 Poo/s, and in the straggling Rzvers (Whose folding Chanell fertill Champain severs) So many /ishes of so many features That in the Waters one may see all Creatures And allthat 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 Pov RICYN FISHES. ALY oe oer s Base see Ain elses aaesee BUS Ve EO IelbiKGla 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. THOREAU, Walden Pond. -e- HE PERCH isa member of avery ancient race. A closely related form has been found fossil in the tertiary deposits of Giningen, 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. 3 There is no representative of the genus in the tributaries of the Pacific, either American or Asiatic, but the allied Perczchthys replaces it in tem- perate South America (Patagonia, Peru and Chili), while in northern China Szmperca fills its “stead:-» Whe Stome=perch,* Pope, Ruties hear barsch or Gremille, of Europe, Acerzna 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. - Gunther, Stemdachmervamnd 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 ofthe 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, IVE, VIIIOICOUW NAb Ie(Cval 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 iMicwenrcticatmtOntne, Gcepesta parts of them 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 anyinconvenience. 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 .&., and in Sweden, by Malm’s observations, in May, also, at 50° F. In ‘Virginia and Maryland Perch spawnin 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,’’ Caltha 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, (OOO IMECe Mine a hrenel naturalist, found threevmales prepared for breeding as well as a female with ovaries hardly visible. The proportion of males to females varies curiously with locality. Out cof one hundred taken at Salzburg only ten were males, and Cuvier stated * Oppian’s Halieutics. = 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 11 ounces, and 155,620 in one of 3 pounds 2 ounces. Lacépede put the figure at 1,000,000, Bloch at 28,000, and Abbott at 8,000. The-eggs are from 2,to 214 mm.an diameter, or about as laneeuas poppy seeds. They are of the adhesive class, and cling tosethersa 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. Whe speciestisver, 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 im aquarium tanks, where, with care, they will doubtless hatch their young. 9) MIG VIGIEIOON ATM BTR OV aE 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 9) Species, andi are voraciousin 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 1n proportion to their size as the Black inassvand the Pike: The claims of this fish to popular favor have been strangely overlooked in America, owing perhaps to the fact that anglers, hke 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- mlete Angler: 6 AMERICAN FISITES. ‘¢T 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 forthe people,’ and a\“‘supenior table aisha 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 1 pass thee over in’ silence;-O: Perch, the delicacy, ome 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 Prout: or Pickerela <‘‘ Perch,’” adds this writer,; “i1susuemiy, 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.’’ 7 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, IESE SEI A DN Wag op Ka Gal 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 menz is most welcome, as witness water souché, as served at ministerial dinners, city banquets or private parties at Richmond and Greenwich.’’* - Thesimplest way to catch Perch is with the boy’s standard outfit: a ‘‘pole,’’ a stout line, a large float and heavy sinker and 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 vour 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 to a 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.—\ay 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. OTeied Perch.—Brush the fish over with egg, and sprinkle bread crumbs over it. Have ready boiling lard; put the fish in and fry a nice brown. Serve with anchov¥ 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 andserve. ‘ Broiled Perch flitters ’’ are spoken of with enthusiasm by early gourmets. i 8 AMERICAN TEESTIUEES. 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 1t 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,”’ 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, is recommended to keep the line from sinking. 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 rodiwop 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 DEE VEE LOW! PIR CL. 9 them, especially the pzche aux geux in its different forms, very complicated, and hardly to be recommended for use in America. MinesReuch) tbe caicd wall) also mnise ttowan artitictall bait, or toa tly, 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 gesemuoed by Mir AN: 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 plers 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 sogn 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 IO 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 bamted!: 4 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.”’ fase ‘‘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., I 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 a fish. 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 tilisthens accel known what leviathans he 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. * ©*\ * Waazediainthamenes 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! Ita man knew what it was torfish alluones life in a stream that has only one Perch, to catch that’ Perehymimertmnes 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. THE SAUGER. THE PIKE-RPERCHES. Stizostedion vitreum and S. canadense. The surest way To take the fish, is give her leave to play, And yield her line. Quares, Shepheard’s Eclogues, 1644. —e 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 medizval naturalists under the name Lwczoperca—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. Linneus in his ichthyological system, named the Scandinavian species Perca Lucioperca, 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 Lwczoperca, until the pubh- 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,’’ andnamed the fish S¢zzostedion, 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: (1) 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 coeca 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’ 1s. the ‘common: Sand- Pike, or Sauger,.otarmemGiean 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. IDE 0 IES IK IB SEI DIRS CVE AS: 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. S§. VITREUM. Jordan recognizes two subspecies of S¢7zostedion vitreum—the typical form S. vitreum vitreum, and asmaller, heavier bodied form which is bluer 1n color and is generally known as the Blue Pike, S. wetreum 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. Zuczoperca (1L),* 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, Hsox /uwctus 1s known as the pickerel, Stzzostedion vitreum is called the ‘‘ Pike,’’ withsuch local variations as “Blue Pike,” ““ Yellow Pike’ “Green Pike] vandie-o G rassmlotikecwas In Ohio, Tennessee and western North Carolina, it robs sox 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 Salmonida 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 badname. ‘‘Okow,’’ sometimes heard in the lake region 1s 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 ““Woree,”’ and <““Wory’? 1s a mame which haspionne mats 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 wtreum. 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 in Northern Germany, Aszaul, Nagenaul, Schiel, Schill and fogosch in Southern Germany, Sanxder and Sandel in Austria, Sanxdre or Sandat in France, Sandart in Denmark, Goes in Sweden, Gyov7 in Norway, Sudak in Russia, Sterkas in Lithuania, Sexdacz in Poland, Sullo and Fogas in Hungary. HIELO, SIRI ADEE Chal OSs 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’’ is to be the name of S. gvzsewm 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. 5S. ‘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 mocks In Wake Repim, 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 t 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. vitreum. LS. canadense boreum ; 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, larve, 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 hght 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 is 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 bedsin 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 1t 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 IEDR I KG thy EF DIK Cos IOS 17 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 Knerstate 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 1s 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.+ 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 ofthe 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. 2 18 AMERICAN FLISTIES. 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.{ 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 Tein 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. w¢reuwm ranks next in value to the white fish and lake trout, though 4S. 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, whenserved 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. | lish Hatching and Fish Catching, 1879, p. 173. { fischzucht, p. 149. IIE IE SEI OKUE NM AISI OTE TES, rae) ‘Ihave an impression that the delicacy of the Zander in Germany 1s 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 ¢chastikovt, 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 tospin 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. Hisessay 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 toten 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. vo/- 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 theice. 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, 191. 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.”” Jt is the largest of a large group of little perch-like fishes called ‘‘ Darters’’ or ¢theostoma- 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 tosupport 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, Perczna 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 whiletocook 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. ae 5 Oe <= a : = o © 2S SoS SS S8SR8 S> THE STRIEED 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. BY 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 AaBoag 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 thé-South the ** Reck 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, Gape-mouth in Scotland, Draenog in Wales, ( This means hedgehog. Compare withthe Breton Dreinee.) Bar and Bars in France, Vaz and Dreznee 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.) LLL SALE LEED BASS 28 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 quite often. An eighteen- pound specimen was sold there in March, 188o0.”’ 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 interriiptus, 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 1s a sufficiently accurate commentator on the classi- cal authorities, remarks: ‘‘ Though born, and in a great measure, bred at sea, 1t 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 SPEe ayitey 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 WWnials2” wrote: ‘ “Rock Bass, 71° Slouch Bass). -aaaaun Bass,” ““Green- Bass,” “Spotted Bass; 44- “Green! Perch ae aeons Perch,*’ ‘* Black Perch” and ““Speckled Hien’ are other nantessapplied 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. I, 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 Rcbert Clarke & Co., Cincinnati. ‘‘ Fly fishing for Black Bass,’’ a serial publication by W.S. Norris, in The American Angler, isan exceedingly well-written sketch in the American style. DAE BDA CK BASS: 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 Potomacand 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 AZzcropterus 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 to a 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-lilies, 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 USED IESDA OTR SEVAYS SIS 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 tae 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 theseggs 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 ro o’clock a. m., sold and wrapped in paper, left ina warm room till 5 p. m., when they were found to be alive and well. TE BLACK BASSES On i 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 alsowell 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 AME RT CAIN “il Sielide, 5: 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 1s book-knowledge less valuable than to him whose desire 1t 1s 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.- ““Ji W..” writing to the Amezican Angle7, Jaume) 315) wooemmne: ported as follows the weights of sixteen taken in the Homosassa River, Hemard Co., Fla., in one-and-a-half hour’s fishing: 744, 61%, 5%, 5%, B, 45 y 4a eA A see 2, 1 4 total JOSspounds. 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. IG, TEI IAM CIS SEV SIS. 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, jt 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.’ ‘Tn 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 ina 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 Albins Slowly upward, wavering, gleaming Lifting up his disk refulgent, Rose the Ugudwash, the Sun-fish Loud he shouted in derision Seized the line of Hiawatha, ‘Esa! esa! shame upon you. Swung with all his weight upon it. You are Ugudwash, the Sun-fish ; # * * 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, Mzawatha’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 o1 the morning’s glory a score of lean, sun-dried perches and Sunnies, and, mayhap, a few eels and bull-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 — EEE ON TOS TIS AID) MEG Le ADIT LES. 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 {hie 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, 1s 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 clearswaters. 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 for 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 Lepomis 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 aa: a 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 ’’ (Szveam), and “‘ Pearch ’’ (exch). In Pennsylvania it 1s called “sun Perch-’ and) °° Red Pleaded Breamne - elsewhere it is the ‘“‘ Red Breast,’’ ‘‘ Red Bellied Bream’’ and the ‘‘ Red Bellted Rereh., It is found in all coastwise streams from Maine to Louisiana, but does TAS SONS EISHIES: AND THER 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 Soulnnenmames a Perens)“ Sun-fish,’’-*°G@ogele-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,”’ 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 abounds in the sufficiently similar to the Rock Bass. The Sacramento Perch, Archoplites tnterruptus, 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 1s 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 LLS AGS, of little more than one pound. Nothing distinctive is known of its habits. THE ROCK BASS. The Rock Bass, Ambloplites rupestris,is also known as the ‘‘ Goggle- eye’ and ‘* Red-eye.” . All these mames) are: im general) use mine mimee 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 im sizeandiihas 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 sparoides. is a beautiful fish known by a —. Midi OWLS Lge, Ss AUTO TATE Tk. ALLIES. 69 —— many names. In Lake Erie, and in Ohio generally, it is the ‘‘ Straw- 99 Deke basssaso tram berny berehy’ on “Crass Bass.’ The names “* Bitter Head’’ and ‘‘Lamplighter’’ are also ascribed to it by Mr. Klippart, and Pobanikelotckesacs, by, Di Kairtlandy and it 1s also-called <“ Bar-fish, ” fiNiZOnodcwew sonimealapim, Yeerch, 7) “silver Bass)’ and: “Bie iim bass.) ine Wake Michigan, the name “° Barfish’’ 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- Seated color in the South, like Ambloplites rupestris, it becomes a ‘‘Gogegle-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 AME RTCAN 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. ~ t * “ithe Grass Bass is pertecthw adapted mtomstockimg poms sami 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 -1s 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 TSE, SIOIN SDSL AUNTIE) WS oS Tk VALI CI IES. 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,’’ gicouclesive.« 9 speckled Perch,” °Sjonn 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 httle in its habits distinctive from those of the Strawberry Bass. Like the latter, it is said to be an 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 a pound. 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 mére easily frightened, requiring greater caution on the part of the angler. Aveorrespondent of the Angler* 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 A MERA CA IN PLS LLU S: 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 lve-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 Island. 7 ee Snappers and the Grunts belong to Gill’s family, Prestipomatide. 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, Lutjanus 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, HISELLSS: 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 Blackfordi 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 Lutjanus 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 ro, 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 “tapenonsnerds 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 1s 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 SNAPRERS AND RED MOULAS, 75 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, eras, and prawns. Lhe 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 AMERTCAN 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 theresold. 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-Boutllon 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. I am inclined to believe that this is a- mistake. Their habits are closely similar to those otmimerses 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: ‘¢ Eighteen 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.”,—Mu1ss ParLoa. SIVARPELRS AND RED-WMOOT EHS. a5) 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 she 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 phed 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 preyious 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 Lutjanus Blackfordit. 78 AMERICAN FISHES. The genus Zuwfjanus 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 ZL. Black- fordit in the Gulf of Mexico—the Pensacola Snapper, Z. Stearuszz, and the Mangrove Snapper, Ahomboplites 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 allthe 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 inseareh on 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 1s 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 Lutjanus Stearnsi by another name, and ‘‘ Pensacola Snapper’’ has been suggested. The Mangrove Snapper, Rhomboplites aurorubens, of Charleston, called ’? is a much more slender and ele- gantly formed fish than either of the Snappers already described. Its at Pensacola the ‘‘ Bastard Snapper, 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 sitar morn as © haniestom o71c- writes Stearns, ‘‘it 1s well-known, but not P) “int temPensacola nearons SVAPPERS AND RED-MOUTAS. 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, Lvianus caxzs, 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 Dzaba- sas, 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 brillant 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 GieetGrimis wand <<“ Pis-fish.’)< Im some localities they are’ called also faoquirckeltich, ” imvallusionjto 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, Diabasis Plumiert, has a brownish body, lighter upon the sides, and has the sides of the head ornamented with numerous hori- So AMERICAN. FISHES. zontal stripes of bright blue, while the posterior half of the lower lip is red. It 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,’’ DY. aldus being called the ‘‘ Margate Bish,’ and: 2): chrome the << Sailor srChoice. 7 The Red-Mouth Grunt, Dzabasis aurolineatus, is probably the «“ Flannels mouthed Porgy,’’ familiar to Florida fishermen, and often taken on the St. Johns bar, It has recently been found) to- be) commonem 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 shght 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 ther Gulag coast of Florida from Pensacola to Key West. It is caught with hook and line, and is eaten as a pan-fish. 1 took an extremely large specimen from the snapper ground between Cedar Keys and St. Marks in fifteen fathoms of water.” Itas not found in the vicinity of Pensacola: ane brook writes: ‘‘ The Red-mouthed Grunt 1s 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 as mot 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 —$<$<——_ Ae TS AVE) ee MOO 1 1LS, SI closely related genus is the ‘‘ Hog-fish,’”’ or ‘‘ Grunt,’’ of the Chesapeake, pnchealiedtalso bic-tish) or “Grunt + \inthe Gulf of Mexico, and <* Pork-— fish’’ and ‘‘ Whiting’’ at Key West, and known in South Carolina and the St. Johm’s River; Fla., as well as in Bermuda under the name of octloOus hore.) its colors areas 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 $2 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 epieures. 7 ‘On the Gulf coast,’’ writes Stearns, ‘‘it 1s 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,’’ Pvristipoma 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, Xevnstius califor- menses Steindachner, occurs from San Diego to Cape San Wucas lias too scarce to be of any importance for food. THE SHEEPSHEAD. Thi Sith E PSEA, 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 111, Scener. pee members of the family Sparzdae, 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- ccisorial 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 fature 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 mame, but) there 1s) line 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 inabundance. 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 theysoutla 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 mot 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 BaieomexMliciily. rie contnes /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 mivers, but mever leaves: the salt for fresh) water.’ In the St. Jolin’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 —_—————— eh 86 AMPLE LTCAINES TU STE S. 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 teeth 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 whieh yethen floated to the place desired, and sunk in eight feet of water by casting stones or live-oak timber within. Assoon 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 (came mecdrom twenty feet length, with fourteen feet of line attached, a strong hook and a light 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 he on the bottom. The Sheepshead is a shy fish, and takes the bait more confidently if it hes 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 MDE SLL EPS LPL ADD, 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. I 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 pers 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 torchhght 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 hve Sheepshead, from the 1st of May, 1773, to the 1st of May, 1774.’ ‘Some unknown writer conimbuvedsio Brown’s ‘¢ American Angler,’’ in 1846, the following memorandum : ‘These noble fish have become quite scarce in our harbor. 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- DHE SHEEPSHEAD. S9 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 ¢10 a day, by fishing for Sheepshead. . ‘¢There are many places along our shores better than Jamaica Bay. Whe 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 ef brackish water, and am inclined to doubt the vaunted superiority of those of New York. imeElorda, and as far north as Port Royal, S: €.; the Sheepshead is a winter resident. Mr. Ellott 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 1s, 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 1s 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 thatthe Sheepshead is one of the very finest “food-tskesmmm 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 ion ialanyOne. * How ro Dorit 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 kinds of fish may be first skinned, but carp should retain its skin. , When only salt is added to the water, the fish is said to be a 2’eau de sed. When sea-water is used, the fish is understood to be dressed. a 7’ Hollandaise. When white wine or vinegar and spices and shred onions, are employed to flavor the water, the fish becomes az court bouillon, and should the fish be simmered in a small quantity of water, to which is added a savoury seasoning of herbs, it is known as being a Za 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 aw bleu, and is almost , = THE SHEEPSHEAD. gi The Pin-fish, Diplodus Holbrookit, 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 rhomboides, z - 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 inthe 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. s : 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. Salmon, usually, should be allowed at least ten minutes to each pound, while two or three minutes per pound will be ample for haddock, cod, &c.: a mackerel needs about a quarter of an hour to do it properly ; herrings, and many other sorts of fish, scarcely half so long. < THE SCUPPAUG. STENOTOMUS CHRYSOPS. THES SCUPPAUG AN DSTHE- EAlh avin? Bait the hook well; this fish will bite. SHAKESPEARE, Much Ado About Nothing, Act ii, Scene iii. GCUFEAUG the name of this fish, is an abbreviation of A/tshcuppauog, 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 demethened into ““Pausy or About this timeltheoatimwac introduced, and was abandoned after being used some ten years.* * The mackerel gaff was used to some extent, by the hook and line fishermen, as late as 1865, and possibly even since that time, RHE MACKEREL AND ILS ALLIES. 181 The mackerel fishery at the time of its highest developement, from 1820 to 1870, was carried on almost exclusively by the use of little hooks with heavily weighted shanks, known as ‘‘ mackerel jigs.’’ For many years there were from six-hundred to nine-hundred vessels, chiefly from Cape Cod and northward, engaged in this fishery; and in the year 1831 the ‘total amount of mackerel salted in Maine, New Hampshire and Massachu- settes was 450,000 barrels. The jig has now been almost entirely superseded by the purse-seine, and this radical change in the method of catching mackerel has caused the desertion, by the mackerel fleet, of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and the practical futility—to benefit our fishermen—of the fishery clauses of the Treaty of Washington. All attempts, with very few exceptions, to use the purse-seine in the Gulf of St. Lawrence have been failures. The purse-seine has come into general use since 1850, and with its in- troduction the methods of the mackerel fishery have been totally revolutionized. The most extensive changes, however, have taken place since 1870, for it is only during the last ten years that the use of the purse-seine has been at all universal. As late as 1873 and 1874 a few ves- sels have fished with the old apparatus in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and also a few on the coast of New England. Such changes in the manner of fishing for mackerel have brought about also a change in the fishing grounds. Vessels fishing in the old style were most successful in the Gulf of St Lawrence, but the purse-seine can be used to very much better advantage along our own shores between Cape Hatteras and the Bay of Fundy. . Considerable quantities of Mackerel are sometimes caught in gill-nets at various points along the New England coast from Vineyard Sound to Eastport. For the most part, however, they are taken west of Mount Desert. This fishery is carried on in two ways: The gill-nets may be anchored and left out over night, as is the custom about Provincetown, or they may be set from a boat or vessel. The latter method is called ez) Pie) ) “‘iraceimena. tue wesselsjare called ““dragegers,”’ or ‘< drag-beats,”’ and the fishermen ‘‘mackerel draggers.’’ The Mackerel gill-nets are 20 to 30 fathoms long, 2% fathoms deep, with a mesh varying from 2% to 3 inches. In Provincetown harbor they are set in the following manner: Active and beautiful, strong, hungry and courageous, the Mackerel possesses all the attributes of a game fish, and were it not so abundant it 182 AME LCA N SFARSTTES. would be one of the angler’s prime favorites. Some of the sportsmen ignore the Mackerel, but Hallock and Scott are broad-minded enough to speak a word in its favor. Hallock says that it affords most excellent sport to the rod and reel. ‘‘ Bass tackle of the lightest description, with wire gimp snood, is required : caplin, porgy and clams are used for bait, and no float is necessary, and when the fish are biting sharply, the bait will be taken the instant it touches the water.’’ Scott is even more decided in his approval. ‘‘ Hook-fishing for Mackerel,’’ remarks he in his Fishing in American Waters, is very exhilarating sport. A brisk breeze, sky mellowed by fleecy clouds, gulls swooping and screaming, everything in excitement. Under such circumstances and surroundings, it is not strange if the troller, whiffer or still-baiter should inflate his lungs and feast his soul until the waning sun warns him to desist and retire. Excellent sport is sometimes to be had by rowing or sculling a boat into a thick shoal and trolling for them with feathered squid, or twirling spoon or casting to them a white artifi- cial fly.”’ . And then—when the Mackerel is caught—trout, bass and sheepshead cannot vanquish him in a gastromonic tournament. In Holland, to be sure, the Mackerel is not prized, and is accused of tasting like rancid fish-oil, and in England, even.they are usually lean and dry, lke the wretched skeletons which are brought into market in April and May by the southern fleet, which goes forth in the early spring from Massachusetts to intercept the schools as they approach the coasts of Carolina and Vir- ginia. They are not worthy of the name of Mackerel. Scomber is not properly in season until the spawning season is over, the schools begin to feed at the surface in the Gulf of Maine and the ‘‘ North Bay.”’ Just from the water, fat enough to broil in its own drippings, or shghtly corned in strong brine, caught at night and eaten in the morning, a Mackerel or a bluefish is unsurpassable. A well-cured autumn Mackerel is perhaps the finest of all salted fish, but in these days of wholesale capture by the purse-seine, hasty dressing and careless handling, it is very difficult to obtain a sweet and sound salt Mackerel. Salt Mackerel may be boiled as well as broiled, and a fresh Mackerel may be cooked in the same manner. Americans will usually prefer to do without the sauce of fennel and gooseberry which transatlantic cooks reeommend. Fresh and salt, fat and lean, new or stale, Mackerel are consumed by Americans in TEE MACKEREL AND TPS ADLTES. 183 immense quantities, as the statistics show, and whatever their state, always find ready sale. The mackerel fishery is pecuharly American, and its history is full of romance. No finer vessels float than the American mackerel schooners— yachts of great speed and unsurpassed for seaworthiness. ‘The modern instruments of capture are marvels of inventive skill, and require the highest degree of energy and intelligence on the part of the fishermen. The crews of the mackerel schooners are still for the most part Americans of the old colonial stock, although the cod and halibut fisheries are to a great extent given up to foreigners. It is particularly appropriate that the mackerel fishermen of New England should have found a bard in one who is above all others the poet of old New England. Whittier’s ‘‘ Song of the Fishermen ’’ celebrates the days in the early part of the century when our fleet went yearly to the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the coast of Labrador : Where in mist the rock is hiding, And the sharp reef lurks below, And the white squall smites in summer, And the autumn tempests blow ; Where through gray and rolling vapor, From evening into morn, A thousand boats (were) hailing, Horn answering unto horn. There we’ll drop our lines, and gather Old Ocean’s treasures in, Where’er the mettled mackerel Turns up a steel-dark fin, The sea’s our field of harvest, Its scaly tribes our grain ; We'll reap the teeming waters As at home they reap the plain! Hurrah !—Hurrah !—the west-wind Comes freshening down the bay, The rising sails are filling,— Give way, my lads, give way! Leave the coward landsman clinging To the dull earth, like a weed,— The stars of Heaven shall guide us, The breath of Heaven shall speed ! THE SPANISH MACKEREL. THE SPANISH MACKEREL AND THE CEROES. Sooner shall cats disport in water clear And speckled mackrels graze the meadows clear Than I forget my shepherds wonted love. — Gay. Pastorals, 1714. Next morn they rose and set up every sail The wind was fair, but blew a mackrel gale. Drypen. The Hind and. the Panther, 1687. HE Spanish Mackerel is surely one of the most graceful of fishes. It appeals as scarcely any other can to our love of beauty, when we look upon it, as shown in Kilbourn’s well-known painting, darting like an arrow just shot from the bow, its burnished sides, silver flecked with gold, thrown into bold relief by the cool green background of the rippled sea; the transparent greys, opalescent whites and glossy blacks of its trembling fins, enhance the metallic splendor of its body, until it seems to rival the most brilliant of tropical birds. Kilbourn made copies of his large painting on the pearly linings of sea-shells, and produced some wonderful effects by allowing the natural lustre of the mother-of-pearl, to show through his transparent pigments and simulate the brilliancy of the life-inspired hues of the quivering, darting sea-sprite, whose charms even his potent brush could not properly depict. } It is allover of the sun,-a fishof tropical “nature; which comes to us only in midsummer, and which disappears with the approach of cold, to some region not yet explored by ichthyologists. It is doubtless very familiar in winter to the inhabitants of some region adjacent to the waters of the Caribbean or the tropical Atlantic, but until this place shall have ° been discovered it is more satisfactory to suppose that with the blue fish & | Rs j ; e E P 7 + icp ee ef Og ee as i ee ene at oe Sey Wels Sie WN Side NIAC TOE fel ANDY TPE CER OLS. . 1385 and the mackerel it inhabits that hypothetical winter resort, to which we send the migratory fishes whose habits we do not understand—the mid- dle strata of the ocean, the floating beds of Sargassum, which drift hither and thither under the alternate promptings of the Gulf-stream currents and the winter winds. ; Sixty-two years ago, Mitchill, in his ‘‘ New York Fauna’”’ said all that was known of this fish in two short sentences :—‘‘ A fine and beautiful fish. Comes in July.” Seven years ago, when the writer was called upon to prepare its biography for his ‘‘ Game Fishes of the United States,’’ he was compelled to admit that later naturalists had added very little to this tersely expressed story. The admirable studies cf Earll and Stearns have since been made, and the habits of the Spanish Mackerel are now fairly well understood. It is a member of the Mackerel family and of the genus Scomberomorus, established in 1802 by Lacépéde, and subsequently re-named by Cuvier, Cybtum. European naturalists still cling to Cuvier’s name for the genus, which is composed of twelve or more species inhabiting the warmer por- tions of the Atlantic and Indian oceans. The species under discussion was described by Mitchill under the name Scomber maculatus. For nearly half a century it stood upon our books as Cybium maculatum, but our pro- gressive American school of ichthyologists now insist that for the sake of a consistent nomenclature, we must catalogue this lovely species under the unlovely name Scomberomorus maculatus. — The Spanish Mackerel is not the only representative of the genus Scom- beromorus which occurs in Ameri¢an waters. ‘There are two closely allied forms in the Atlantic, which are gigantic in comparison. In the Gulf States they are called King-fish and are highly esteemed by lovers of good sport and delicate food. Both of these forms have been occasionally ob- served as far north as Cape Cod, and it is quite possible that their abun- dance along our eastern coast is greater than is at present suspected. The three species are very similar in form, and their distinctive characters are of such a kind that they might readily be overlooked by ordinary observ- ers. It is my own opinion that they are sold in large numbers with the Spanish Mackerel, and under the prestige of itsname. The fish-mongers, the only persons likely to notice the differences, would, for obvious reasons, not be likely to call attention to them. The distinctive characters, though not obtrusive, are strong and con- 186 AMERICAN FISHES. stant and he who chooses to do so may soon learn to discriminate between the Spanish Mackerel and its allies. The Spotted Cero, or King Cero, Scomberomorus regalis, has seventeen dorsal spines, and upon the front of the first dorsal, which is white, is a spot of deep blue, which is prolonged far back upon the upper edge of the fin. The sides are marked with broken longitudinal bands of gold, inter- lined with brown and golden spots. : | : It differs from »S. maculatus, which also has seventeen dorsal spines, in the form of its teeth and in its coloration. In the Spanish Mackerel the teeth are somewhat conical and very pointed, the first dorsal has a d/ack blotch. and the spots upon the sides are golden brown nearly circular and not arranged in band like series. THE SPOTTED CERO. The King Cero is a magnificent fish which grows to be five or six feet in length and attains a weight of twenty to thirty pounds. It is abundantin the West Indies, and has been recorded from Cuba, Santo Domingo, Ja- maica, Barbadoes, Key West, and Brazil. The Silver Cero, Scomberomo- rus caballa, has fourteen spines in its full dorsal fins, which is immaculate in color. The young fish have the sides of the body marked with indis- tinct spots, circular in form, and tawny in color, which disappear with age ; the lateral line is very sinuous upon the posterior portion of the body. It is a West Indian species, which has already been observed at Santo Domingo, Jamaica, Cuba, Martinique, Porto Rico, and Brazil, and a few specimens have been captured as far north as Wood’s Holl, Mass. Prof. Jordan states that they are caught with trolling hooks on nearly every summer trip of the steamer from Savannah to New York. This is a mag- nificent fish, which often attains the weight of twenty-five pounds. Its habits are doubtless like those of the Spanish Mackerel. ‘The name Cero is commonly accepted in the United States; it is a corruption of the THE SHANWISH MACKEREL AND THE CHEROES.-; 187 Spanish szerra, which is in fact the name applied to the species by the Spanish people of Mexico. King-fish, according to Silas Stearns, are very abundant in the southern part of the Gulf of Mexico, and are common in some localities along the coast of our Gulf States. They live at sea and are caught by the use of trolling-lines. At Key West, large quantities are sold in the markets. Two men in a small sail-boat sometimes catch a hundred or more in a day. The Pacific species, Scomberomorus concolor, has been called the ‘* Mon- terey Mackerel.’’ It attains a length of about thirty inches and a weight of about five or eight pounds. It has only been seen in the Monterey Bay, where from five to forty individuals are taken each autumn, most of them at Soquel. They appear in September and disappear in November. Nothing is known of their distribution or habits. They always command the high price of from thirty to fifty cents per pound. ‘The flesh is similar to that of the Spanish Mackerel, which it closely resembles. The male is silvery blue, without spots, but the female has a double row of alternately roundish blotches upon each side. The Spanish Mackerel is a species smaller and more delicately formed than the others which occur in the Atlantic. Its normal range, as now understood, is from Cape Cod to the Gulf of Mexico. It is possible, in- deed probable, as has already been suggested, that it occurs in the waters of South America, though the statement that Agassiz recorded it from Brazil is based upon an erroneous reading of his statement in his book on the fishes collected by Spix. Poey had it from Cuba. Solitary individu- als have been taken north of Cape*Cod, one at Provincetown in August, 1847, one at Lynn in July, 1841, and one at Monhegan in Maine. I am disposed to question the official statement of the Canadian fisheries de- partment that one was taken at New London, in September, 1880, which, if true, would extend the range of the species several hundred miles. The author of this report justly remarks: ‘‘ It is rare to find this fish in so high a latitude.’’* The identification should be verified. Though abundant in the north-eastern portion of the Gulf of Mexico, few individuals have as yet been observed off the east coast of Florida. The species also occurs along the Pacific coast of Mexico, and in great abundance in the Gulf of California. * Supplement No, 2 to the Eleventh Annual Report of the Minister of Marine and Fisheries for the year 1880, p. 229. 188 AMERICAN FISHES. Spanish Mackerel visit the shores of our Atlantic states, on a mission of feeding and breeding. In early spring they appear in schools off our southern coast, appearing in the waters of West Florida early in March, or even in the latter part of February, reaching Pensacola about the beginning of April. Off the Carolinas, their coming is a little later, for they do not reach Charleston before the end of March, and really enter the sounds of Pamlico and Albemarle until a month later. By the 20th of May, they are rounding the capes of Virginia, and the schools rapidly increase in number in the inland sea of the Chesapeake, until the middle of June, and their abund- ance continues through the summer and early autumn. In July and August they are most abundant off the coasts of New York and Southern New England, where they remain in considerable numbers through the early part of September—just as they did in the days of Mitchill, and, so far as we can know, in the seventeenth century when Josselyn described the fishes of New England. With the approach of the autumnal equinox, their southward migrations begin. The first of October finds them absent from the region north of New Jersey, and by November they have deserted the waters of the United States, unless perchance, a few may still remain among the reefs and sand-beds of the Florida Keys. They are lovers of warm waters, even more so than the blue-fish, for they precede in the fall migration the schools of menhaden, while the blue-fish follow them. ‘Their breeding season in the Chesapeake occurs when the temperature of the water ranges from 78° to 84°, and it 1s believed that they do not willingly enter water colder than 60° Their habits are much like those of the blue-fish, with which they are said to associate. They are much more active in their movements, and sport and dance between sky and water almost lhke swallows skimming over a lake. No oceanic fishes which I have seen are so admirably built for springing. ‘Their tails are muscular, shapely, provided with oar-like fins, formed like the crescent moon. ‘Their bodies are conical, arrow-like, smooth as burnished metal, and their speed must be as matchless as that of the dolphins. When the blue-fish leaps, it is with more deliberation and noise, falling back into the water with a splash, while the sharp head of the Spanish Mackerel cuts the water like the stem of a yacht. Mr. Earll tells me that the Chesapeake fishermen can indentify the species by its movements as far as the eye can see. Mele SULA DVN Sele irs GREER Le AI TUTE) CHR OLS: 186 In Genio C. Scott’s « Fishing in American Waters’’ is an interesting little picture of a school of Spanish Mackerel feeding, which is worthy of examination. Both Earll and Stearns agree in the statement that this is a fish which lives almost entirely at the surface. On a calm bright day in summer, the surface of the Chesapeake or the Gulf of Mexico is sometimes broken up for miles by the movements of large schools of these fishes, while the air is enlivened by the screaming flocks of terns, which follow them, to gather up the fragments of their feasts. Similar scenes may occasionally be wit- nessed off the coast of New Jersey and the Carolinas, but further to the southward their abundance is less. The schools are frequently observed at a long distance from the shore, especially when they are first approaching in the spring. Mr. Earll has also called attention to the fact that they avoid brackish waters, and thus accounts for their abundance on the eastern side of the Chesapeake, and their comparative absence near the opposite shores where the salinity of the waters is lessened by the inflow of the Potomac, Rappahannock, the York and the James. During the spawning season they frequent the warmest and shoalest waters to which they can gain access. The diet of the Spanish Mackerel is like that of the blue-fish, entirely carnivorous, and there is no reason to doubt that the menhaden or moss- bunker is its principal quaving. Mackerel, mullet, silversides and all our other schooling species contribute also a share to its support. The breeding habits of this fish were never understood until the spring of 1880, when, to the astonishment of everyone, it was found by Mr. Earll that their spawning grounds are in the Chesapeake Bay and at other localities on the middle Atlantic coast, while Mr. Silas Stearns, almost simultaneously discovered a breeding place in the Gulf of Mexico. Mr. Earll, to whom science is indebted for a most thorough and comprehensive study of the reproductive habits of this fish, has published a full account of his observations, and of his experiments in practical fish-culture in one of the annual reports of the U. S. Fish Commission,* to which the reader is referred for detailed statements, since it is not the purpose of this book to enter into prolonged discussions of such a character. Mr. Earll found evidence that the species spawns not only in the Sandy *R.E. Eartyt. The Spanish Mackerel. Report U.S. Comm. Fisheries, 1880. (1883) pp. 395-426. 190 AMERICAN FISHES: ee Hook and Chesapeake regions, but also on the southern shore of Long Island, and in the sounds of the Carolinas. ; In the Carolinas, he tells us, the spawning season begins in April, in the Chesapeake region from the first to the middle of June, in the Sandy Hook region and about Long Island, from the latter part of August to the first-of september. In the Gulf, according to Stearns) the seasommaicmim July. The season continues in any given locality from six to ten weeks, and the spawners, contrary to what occurs in shad, salmon and white-fish, require several weeks rather than a few days only to deposit their indi- vidual building of eggs. A one pound Spanish Mackerel will yield about 300,000 eggs, a six pounder scarcely less than, 1,500,d00;munenspeelcs being much more prolific than salmon, shad or white-fish, though less so i to 5s of an inch in diameter, and over a million can be held within the walls of than the members of the cod family. The eggs are minute, from a quart measure. ‘Their specific gravity is such that they will sink in fresh water and float in the sea. . When first hatched, Mackerel is very small, and the length of the em- bryo scarcely exceeds one-tenth of an inch, while its diameter, even with the comparatively large yelk-sac, 1s so small as to allow it to pass through wire-cloth having thirty-two wires to the inch. For several hours it remains quiet at the surface in an almost helpless condition, small oil globule in the yelk-sac causing it to he belly uppermost. Later the sac is absorbed, and the httle fish manifests greater activity, and by vigorous and spasmodic efforts swim to the depth of an inch orso below the surface. In a few hours it finds no difficulty in swimming at various depths, and begins to lie upon the bottom of the vessel, darting off with surprising rapidity when disturbed. The rate of growth has not been studied. EHarll supposed that the yearling fish are not more than six inches long, and those of two years, to be the young fish of a half-pound weight, observed by Genio C. Scott in the Long Island region. It is scarcely probable that the species attains full size in less than four years. The annual growth of so voracious a species is doubtless considerable after the first two years. ‘The species sometimes attains the weight of eight or nine pounds, though it rarely exceeds three or four pounds. A specimen taken off Block Island, July 8, 1874, the first of the season, measured twenty-six and one-fourth inches and weighed three pounds and five ounces. It is said to be the largest DTT SAN SL NEA CK TATE AND MLE CL ROLES. 5Ox ever taken in this section, and was a female with the ovary spent. In the Gulf States, according to Mr. Stearns, the Spanish Mackerel are in great demand, though but few are caught in the Gulf of Mexico, on account of the absence of proper nets. ‘>, oe eS Ree BINS os Byte Z : << ) a Saas: URE EY aN a Rise 5. eS ) me an Wea Bay y AG a Sz <5 ESS SRS aS a < oS es Kees east aa ee a SES = gj oe ate 3S 4) 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 DLE IDL VLE SID LAS FLL Se 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 CARANGOIiS 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 McLELian. HE members of the family Carangid@, which 1s 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 vertebre, 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” andieimacrenn 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 gemeralllyarcns tributed throughout the West Indies, and is found along the Pacific coast the Gulf of California to Panama. ‘The species was originally described 6. ON ee ee ed Me a a. ee eo oo & aa Pen TARO AW AG AINE) Overt fey CARA G OLD S. 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 <“‘horse.’’? The name as used in South Carolina is a curious reduplication, being a combination of the English and Spanish names for ‘‘horse.’’ It -should be carefully remembered that in South Carolina the name Crevalle is most generally applied to quite another fish, the Pompano. The Cavally, as it seems most appropriate to call Caranx hippos, though “in individual cases occurring as far north as Cape Cod, and.even, in one instance, at Lynn, Mass., is not commonly known in the United States ‘north of Florida. Storer remarks: ‘‘ This fish is so seldom seen in the waters of South Carolina that we are unacquainted with its habits.’’ I observed a specimen in the Jacksonville market in April, 1874. Con- -cerning the Cavally of Southern Florida, which is either this or a closely allied species, Mr. H. S. Williams writes : ? ‘¢TIn the Indian River this is one of the best of the larger varieties. Its season is from the 1st of May to November. It ranges in weight from three to twenty pounds, being larger and more numerous to the southward ‘toward the Mosquito Inlet. The south end of Merritt’s Island and the inlets opposite old Fort Capron seem to be a sort of headquarters for the Cavalli. When in pursuit of prey they are very ravenous and move with “the rapidity of lightning. They readily take a troll either with bait or ‘rag. The favorite mode of capturing them, as well as all other large fish “that feed in shallow water or near the shore, is with a rifle. The high, rocky shores afford an excellent opportunity for this sport, though the ‘rapid movements of the fish render them very difficult target.’’ S. C. Clarke says: ‘‘It will take a spoon or other troll, and would no doubt ‘rise to a fly. When hooked it makes long and vigorous runs, and fights BO tne) last.”’ Mr. Stearns writes: ‘‘ The Crevallé is common on the Gulf coast. In West Florida it appears in May ‘and remains until late in the fall, and is equally abundant in the bays and at sea. In the bays it is noticeable from the manner in which it preys upon fish smaller than itself, the Gulf menhaden and mullet being the most common victims. On arrival it -contains spawn which it probably deposits in the salt-water bayous, for in “the fall schools of young are seen coming out of those places on their way 228 AMERICAN FISHES. to the sea. These young are then of about one pound weight, appearing to the casual observer like pompano, and I am told that they equal it for edible purposes. They are caught accidently by seines and trolling-lines. Large ones are not considered choice food, the tlesh) bemendariaramnd almost tasteless. The average weight is twelve pounds; occasionally they attain the size of twenty pounds.”’ Prof. Jordan found this species abundant in Lake Pontchartrain. Caranx crumenophthalmus, called in the Bermudas, where it is of some- importance as a food-fish, the ‘‘ Goggler,’’ or ‘‘ Goggle-eyed Jack,’’ and. in Cuba the ‘‘ Cicharra,’’ occurs in the West Indies and along the Atlan- tic coast of the United States north to Vineyard Sound. It is also found at Panama and in the Gulf of California, and in the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea, and off the codst of Guinea, while, as has been remarked, at 1s: abundant in the Bermudas. Its large, protruding eyes are very noticeable features, and the Bermuda name seems appropriate for adoption, since the fish has with us never received a distinctive name. In form it somewhat resembles the species last discussed, with which it is probably often confused. Stearns speaks of a fish, common at Key West, which is known. as the ‘‘ Horse-eyed Jack,’’ and this may prove to be the same species. Caranx pisquetus, known about Pensacola as the “ Jurel,’’ ‘‘ Cojinua,’” and ‘‘ Hard-tail’’; along the Florida coast as ‘‘ Jack-fish’’ and ‘‘ Skip- jack’’; in the Bermudas as the ““Jack’” or ** Buffalo Jack ~ Simms souria Carolina as the ‘* Morse Crevallé ?; ‘at’ Port Macon! !as\ them sclonse. Mackerel’’; about New York and on the coast of New Jersey as the ‘‘ Yel- low Mackerel,’’ is found in the Western Atlantic from Brazil, Cuba, and. i? € Mid CAN ALLY SAND: OLE Re CARANG OLDS. 229 Hayti to Halifax, Nova Scotia, where specimens were secured by the United States Fish Commission in 1877. It is one of the commonest summer visitants of the West Indian fauna along the whole coast. of Southern New England and the Middle States, being especially abundant in the Gulf of Mexico, and one of the commonest fishes in the Bermudas. This fish is occasionally brought to the New York market, but is of no special importance as an article of food north of the Gulf of Mexico. Concerning its habits in those waters, Mr. Stearns has contributed a very interesting series of notes. ‘They are especially instructive, since nothing has previously been known of its life-history. “‘Ttis extremely abundant everywhere on the Gulf coast of Florida, Ala- -bama, and Mississippi. At Pensacola it is one of the important fishes of trade, and is highly prized for food. It is one of the class of migratory fishes of this coast, hke the pompano, mullet, Spanish mackerel, and red- fish, having certain seasons for appearing and disappearing on the coast, and also has habits during these seasons that are peculiar to themselves or their class. It appears on the coast in April, in large schools that swim in shoal water near the beach during pleasant weather, when there is little -or no surf, in eight or ten feet of water, and in stormy weather some little ‘distance from the breakers. Their movement is from the eastward to the westward. As they seldom swim at the surface, their movements can be “watched only when in shoal water. ‘The schools ‘running’ in April and first of May are usually smaller than those of a few weeks later, but the individuals of the first are somewhatYarger. The mass, or largest ‘run,’ comes in May, and it is on the arrival of these that schools are first seen -coming in the inlets. “‘A noticeable peculiarity of the Hard-tail compared with some other common migratory fishes is that the first schools do not stay about the mouths of an inlet and along the beach weeks before coming inside as ‘those of the latter do, but continue their westward movement, without ‘seeming to stop to feed or play, until the time has come for a general movement towards the bays. In this way they must be distributed along ‘the coast, with no unequal accumulation at any one point. When once ‘inside, the numerous schools break up into smaller ones of a dozen or two fish, which are found in all parts of the bay during the summer. On their arrival the larger fish contain spawn, and become quite dull, in July and Pauetst | alter this mone are seen but the young fish of about ten 230 AMERICAN FISHES, inches in length, until there is a general movement towards the sea. It is: believed that the adult fish spawn in the bays, but the only evidence to support that belief is that they come inside with spawn, go away with it, and that very young fish are found there. In October and November™ small Hard-tails are caught in Santa Rosa Sound, measuring five and six. inches in length. ‘ “White Salmon, ? and <* Cavasina.”’ Oimene << Yellowtail” Prot, jordam says: ““1t reaches a length of four to five feet, and a weight of thirty to forty pounds, and individuais of less than fifteen pounds weight are rarely seen. It ranges from Cape San Lucas northward to the Santa Barbara and Coronados Islands, where it is found in great abundance in the spawning season, arriving in July, and departing in early fall. It spawns about August 18. It is caught chiefly by trolling. It feeds on squid and such fish as the anchovy and sardine. As a fresh fish it ranks high, although large individuals are sometimes coarse and tough. When salted and dried it is inferior to none on the coast, ranking with the white-fish and barracuda.’’ 234 AMER GANG TALSTLLTLS: The Banded Rudder-fish, Serzola zonata, has been observed as far north as Salem and Beverly, Mass. Several specimens have been taken north of Cape Cod during the past forty years. It is a small fish, rarely exceeding six or eight inches in length, conspicuous by reason of its brilliant and beautiful colors, and good to eat, though rarely saved by the fishermen who accidently capture it. It is called in Southern New England the ‘* Rudder-fish ’’ on account of its resemblance to the Rudder-fish of the ocean, WWaucrates ductor. Sertola fasctata, called in Cuba the ‘‘ Medregal’* and in Bermuda the ‘‘ Bonita,’’ has been observed in South Florida and along the coasts of the Carolinas. It is apparently exceedingly rare in the waters of the United States. In Bermuda it attains a length of two feet or more, and is highly esteemed as a food-fish. The Leather-jacket, O/igoplites saurus, which is found throughout the West Indies and south as far as Bahia, and on the Pacific coast of Mexico and Central America, has since 1875 been severel times observed between Florida and Newport, R. I... It is known to fishermen as the “‘ Skipjack,”’ sharing this name with a number of other scombroid fishes, which leap from the water as they pursue their prey. It is one of the most beautiful and graceful fishes in out waters, but at present is of no economic import- ance, its flesh being hard and-dry. ‘¢The Runner, Elagatis pinnulatvs, known at Key West as ‘‘ Skipjack ”’ or ‘‘Runner,’’ and at Pensacola as ‘‘ Yellow-tail’’ or ‘“‘Shoemaker,’’ is, according to Stearns, abundant on the western and southern coasts of Florida. At Pensacola it spawns in spring; the young fish are seen in July and August. It is found in the bays and along the sea-beaches, seem- ing to prefer clear salt-water, swift currents, and sandy bottoms. It usually moves in small schools of a dozen or two individuals. It feeds. upon small fishes and crustaceans. When pursued by larger fish it jumps repeatedly from the water, very much in the same manner as the flying fish, only its flights are much shorter and oftener repeated. This habit has given it the mames of ‘Skipjack 7 amd‘ Runner” at Key Westaindiencsnu may be seen at almost any time. It is sometimes eaten at Key West, and at Havana is quite an important fish in the markets, being also exposed for sale at stands on the streets, cooked and ready for use. The dolphins, Coryphenide, are found usually in mid-ocean, where they feed upon other pelagic fishes, such as the flying-fish. They are strong, TLE OAV ASE VOAND OLR CARANG OLDS. 225 rapid swimmers, and are widely distributed throughout all temperate and tropical waters. The name Dolphin is unfortunately applied, this being THE DOLPHIN. the peculiar property of a group of small cetaceans. - They are often caught by sailors at sea, and are considered most excellent food. It 1s an_ almost universal custom before eating them to test the fiesh by putting a piece of silver into the vessel in which they have been cooked, it being a common belief that if the flesh is poisonous the silver will turn dark. Narratives of ocean voyages abound in descriptions of the beautiful colors of the Dolphin and the brilliant changes of hue exhibited by the dying fish, but none so eloquent as that in Montgomery’s ‘‘ Pelican Island.’’ ‘A shoal of dolphins, tumbling in wild glee, Glowed with such orient tints, they might have been The rainbow’s offspring, where it met the ocean.’’ There are in the Atlantic two species of Dolphins, though the num- ber was, until lately, supposed to be very much greater. But one of these, Corvphena hippuris, is definitely known from our shores. The young, less than two feet in length, are beautifully marked with numerous small circular spots, and have, until lately, been considered by many writers to belong to a distinct genus and species. Dolphins are abundant also, it is said, in the Gulf of Mexico. The Pilot-fish, Maucrates ductor, though of little or no economic im- portance, deserves passing mention, since it is so frequently referred to in iciaiine.) elt is) ocessionally taken on our coast. (Capt. Atwood mentions a specimen which was taken in a mackerel net in Provincetown Harbor, in October, 1858. A whale-ship had come in a few days before, and he supposes that the Pilot-fish had followed it into the harbor. 236 AMIE TRL CAIN TESTA TES: The Pilot-fish, 47. ductor, is a truly pelagic fish, known in all tropical and temperate seas. Its name is derived from its habit of keeping com- pany with ships and large fish, especially sharks. It is the Pompilus of the ancients, who describe it-as pointing out the way to dubious oF embarrassed sailors, and as announcing the vicinity of land by its sudden disappearance. It was therefore regarded as a sacred fish. The connec- THE PILOT-FISH. tion between the shark and the Pilot-fish has received various interpreta- tions, some observers having, perhaps, added more sentiment than is warranted by the actual facts. It was stated that the shark never seized the Pilot-fish 7 that the latter was of great use to its big companion in conducting it and showing it the way to food. Dr. Meyer, in his ‘‘ Reise states: ‘‘ The Pilot swims constantly in front of the shark ; ) um die Erde,’ we ourselves have seen three instances in which the shark was led by the Pilot. When the shark neared the ship the Pilot swam close to the snout, or near one of the pectoral fins of the animal. Sometimes he darted rapidly forwards or sidewards, as if looking for something, and constantly went back again to the shark. When we threw overboard a piece of bacon fastened on a great hcok, the shark was about twenty paces from the ship. With the quickness of hghtning the Pilot came up, smelt at the dainty, and instantly swam back again to the shark, swimming many times round his snout and; splashing as if to give him ‘exact aniormation) acmromente bacon. The shark now began to put himself in motion, the Pilot showing ‘him the way, and in a moment he was fast upun the hook.* Upon a later occasion we observed two Pilots in sedulous attendance on a blue shark, which we caught in the, Chinese Sea. It seems: probable that the 2ilon feeds on the shark’s excrements, keeps his company for that purpose, and * Tn this instance one may entertain reasonable doubts as to the usefulness of the Pilot to the shark. Mima) Web Ne AID) OLE: CAhAM GOLDS, 2207 directs his operations solely from this selfish view.’’ I believe that Dr. Meyer’s opinion, as expressed in his last words, is perfectly correct. The Pilot obtains a great part of his food directly from the shark, in feeding on the parasite crustaceans with which sharks and other large fish are infested, and on the smaller pieces of flesh which are left unnoticed by fieishank when it tears its prey. The Pilot, also, being a small fish, obtains greater security when in company of a shark, which would keep at a distance all other fishes of prey that would be likely to prove dangerous to the Pilot. Therefore, in accompanying the shark, the Pilot is led by the same instinct which makes it follow a ship. With regard to the statement that the Pilot itself is never attacked by the shark, all observers agree as to its truth; but this may be accounted for in the same way as the impunity of the swallow from the hawk, the Pilot-fish being to nimble for the unwieldy shark. I quote at length the remarks of my friend, Dr. Francis Day: ‘¢This fish has long been celebrated as the companion and guide of sharks, as it was formerly said to be of whales, and also the friend, or at least close attendant, on ships while sailing over the ocean. Although some consider the pilot-fish to be the friend of the shark, others have thought such open to suspicion, while Cuvier has even suggested down- right enmity or rather treachery in its actions. M. Geoffrey tells how two of these fishes were observed to lead a shark up to a baited hook which by their importunities they induced him to gorge. Or as Cuvier pithily puts it, that this tale if true should occasion them to be termed ‘“ deceivers’”’ rather than ‘‘pilots.’’ Capt. Richards once observed upon a blue shark attended by four pilot-fishes following his vessel in the Mediterranean ; a bait was displayed, but the little pilot-fishes pertinaciously came to the front and with their snouts thrust the bait hook away. All at last swam away together, but suddenly the shark changed its mind, turned and rushed forwards with all speed at the bait, leaving his faithful attendants far be- hind, and which only arrived as the body of their companion was being hauled up on board, to which one is said to have clung, until it was half above water, when it fell off leaving it doubtful if it was not a sucking fish. Why the shark does not prey on its companions is a mystery. Lacépede thought their agility saved them, and that their flesh is not worthy the eating. ‘“In the Naturalists’ Note-book (1869, p. 255), a writer (J. D. S. W.) mentions ‘we frequently threw pieces of flesh into the water to them. The pilot-fish first came up and smelt the meat, and then went away and led the shark to it, who always swallowed the whole and left none for his little companions. On a dark night you can see the entire shape of the 238 AMER! CAIN “SLT! S: shark in the water below, shining all over with phosphorescence. Now this phosphorescence is considered by most naturalists to be due to the presence of animalcules, and if so, it may reasonably be presumed that the pilot-fishes live on these animalcules, for they are frequently seen clinging to the sides of the shark.’’ The Pilot-fish does not always leave the vessels on their approach to land. In summer, when the temperature of the sea-water is several degrees above the average, Pilots will follow ships to the south coast of England into the harbor, where they are generally speedily caught. Pilot-fish attain a length of twelve inches only. When very young their appearance differs so much from the mature fish that they have been described as a distinct genus, VWauclerus. ‘Fhis fry is exceedingly common in the open ocean, and constantly obtained in the tow-net; therefore the Pilot-fish retains its pelagic habits also during the spawning season, and some of the spawn found by voyagers floating on the surface is, without doubt, derived from this species. * The Pilot-fish has been observed in one or two instances about New York, and also has been recorded from, South, Carolina. “tise ionmenens rare in the Western Atlantic, and our museums have very few specimens. * Gunther: Study of Fishes, p. 414. <= OR D-PISH, SPEAR-FISH, AND. CUTLASS-FISH. Toward the sea turning my troubled eye I saw the fish, (if fish I may it cleepe) That makes the sea before his face to flye And with his flaggie finnes doth seeme to sweepe The foamie waves out of the dreadful deep. ‘The huge Leviathan, dame Nature’s wonder, Making his sport, that manie makes to weepe; A Sword-fish small, him from the rest did sunder, _ That, in his throat him prickingly softly under, His wide abysse him forced forth to spewe, That all the sea did roare like heavens thunder, And all the waves were stained with filthie hewe. Hereby I learned have not to despise Whatever thing seems small in common eyes. EDMUND SPENSER, The Visions of the World, 1501. HE Sword-fish, X~p/zas gladius, ranges along the Atlantic coast of + America from Jamaica, latitude 18° N., Cuba, and the Bermudas, to Cape Breton, latitude 47° N. It has not been seen at Greenland, Iceland, or Spitzbergen, but occurs, according to Collett, at the North Cape, latitude 71°. Itis abundant along the coasts of Western urope, entering the Baltic and the Mediterranean. I-can find no record of the species on the west coast of Africa, south of the Cape Verdes, though Liitken, who may have access to facts unknown to me, states that they occur clear down to the Cape of Good Hope, South Atlantic in mid-ocean, to the west coast of South America and to Southern California, latitude 34°, New Zealand, and in the Indian Ocean, off Mauritius. The names of the Sword-fish all have reference to that prominent feature, the prolonged snout. The ‘‘Sword-fish’’ of our own tongue, the ** Zwaara-fis”? of the Hollander, the Italian ‘‘ Sofa’? and ‘* Pesce-spada,”’ 240 AMERICAN FISHES. the Spaniards “‘ Lspfada,”’ and ‘‘ 2spadarie,’ varied by =“ Rexw@awaaas. in Cuba; and the French ‘““.Aspadon, “ Dard” ‘and “peace aes are simply variations of one theme, repetitions of the ‘‘ Gladius’’ of an- cient Italy, and ‘‘ Xzphzus,’’ the name by which Aristotle the father of zoology, called the same fish twenty-three hundred years ago. ‘The French “< Empereur,’ ‘and the “ Jmperador,” and “Océan King-ash? fete Spanish and French West Indies, carry out the same idea, for the Roman emperor was always represented holding a drawn sword in his hand. The Portuguese names are “‘Agw/ha,m“* Agiuifhao,’’ meaning “mcedlewasar e needle-nsh. +’ This species has been particularly fortunate in escaping the numerous redescriptions to which almost all widely distributed forms have been sub- jected. By the writers of antiquity, it was spoken of under its Aristotelian name, and in the tenth edition of his Systema Nature, at the very inception of binomial nomenclature, Linnzeus called it Xzphias gladius. By this name it has been known ever since, and only one additional name is included in its synonymy, Xzphias Rondeleti of Leach. The sword-fish has been so long and so well known that its right to its peculiar name has seldom been infringed upon. ‘The various species of Tetrapturus have sometimes shared its title, and this is not to be wondered at, since they closely resemble X7zffzas gladius, and the appellative has frequently been apphed to the family X7zphezde—the Sword-fish family— which includes them all. The name ‘ Bill-fish,’’ usually applied to the Zetrapturus albtdus, a fish of the Sword-fish family often taken on our coast, must be pronounced objectionable, since it is in many districts used for the various species of Belonide, the ‘‘gar-fishes’’ or ‘‘green-bones’’ (Lelone truncata and others), which are members of the same faunas. ‘‘ Spear-fish’’ is a much Detter mame: The ‘‘ Sail-fish,’’ Aestzophorus americanus, is called by sailors in the south the ‘‘ Boohoo’’ or ‘‘ Woohoo.’’ ‘This is evidently a corrupted form of ‘‘Guebucu,’’ a name, apparently of Indian origin, given to the same fish in Brazil. Itis possible that the Zetrapturus is also called ‘‘ Boohoo,’’ since the two genera are not sufficiently unlike to impress sailors with their differences. Bleeker states that in Sumatra the Malays call the re- lated: species, As cladzus, by the mame. “*Joohoo’? «(/w7i7), a ennione coincidence. The names may have been carried from the Malay Archi- pelago, to South America, or wice versa, by mariners. VOD TAS Sr bAh LTS HAND COLLASS-FISH.: 24% In Cuba, the Spear-fishes are called ‘‘ Aguja’’ and ‘‘ Aguja de Palada’’; the Sail-fish, ‘‘ Aguwja Prieta’’ or ‘‘ Aguja Voladora”’; Tetrapturus albidus especially is known as the ‘‘ Agujya Blanca,’’ T. albidus as the ‘‘ Aguja de Casto.”’ In the West Indies and Florida the scabbard-fish or silvery hair-tail, Trichiurus lepturus, a form allied to the Xzphzas, though not resembling it closely in external appearance, is often called ‘‘ Sword-fish.’’ The body of this fish is shaped like the blade of a saber, and its skin has a bright metallic lustre hke that of polished steel ; hence the name. _ Sword-fish are most abundant on the shoals near the shore and on the banks during the months of July and August; that they make their appearance on the frequented cruising grounds between Montauk Point and the eastern part of George’s Banks some time between the 25th of May and the 2oth of June, and that they remain until the approach of cold weather in October and November. ‘The dates of the capture of ‘the first fish on the cruising ground referred to are recorded for three years, Mig@eare reasonably reliable; im 1875, June 20751877, June ro; 1878, June 14. South of the cruising ground the dates of arrival and departure are doubtless further apart; the season being shorter north and east. There are no means of obtaining information, since the men engaged in this fishery are the only ones likely to remember the dates when the fish are Seen: The Sword-fish comes into our waters in pursuit of its food. At least this is the most probable explanation of their movements, since the duties of reproduction appear to be performed elsewhere. Like the tunny, the blue-fish, the bonito, and the squeteague, they pursue and prey upon the schools of menhaden and mackerel which are so abundant in the summer months. ‘‘ When you see Sword-fish, you may know that mackerel are about,’’ said an old fisherman to me. ‘‘ Where you see the fin-back whale following food, there you may find Sword-fish,’’ said another. The Sword-fish also feeds upon squid, which are at times abundant on our banks. To what extent this fish is amenable to the influences of temperature is an unsolved problem. We are met at the outset by the fact that they are frequently taken on trawl-lines which are set at the depth of one hundred fathoms or more, on the off-shore banks. We know that the temperature 16 242 AMERICAN FISHES. of the water in those localities and at that depth is sure to be less than 40° Fahr. How is this fact to be reconciled with the known habits of the fish, that it prefers the warmest weather of summer and swims at the sur- face in water of temperature ranging from 55° to 70°, sinking when cool winds blow below? ‘The case seemed clear enough until the inconvenient discovery was made, that Sword-fish are taken on bottom trawl-lines. In other respects their habits agree closely with those of the mackerel tribe, all the members of which seem sensitive to shght changes in temperature, and which, as a rule, prefer temperature in the neighborhood of 50° or more. The appearance of the fish at the surface depends apparently upon tem- perature. They are seen only upon quiet summer days, in the morning before ten or eleven o’clock, and in the afternoon about four o’clock. Old fishermen say that they rise when the mackerel rise, and when the mackerel go down they go down also. Regarding the winter abode of the Sword-fish, conjecture.is useless. I have already discussed this question at length with reference to the men- haden and mackerel. With the Sword-fish the conditions are very different. The former are known to spawn in our waters, and the schools of young ones follow the old ones in toward the shores. ‘The latter do not spawn in our waters. We cannot well believe that they hibernate, nor is the hypothesis of a sojourn in the middle strata of mid-ocean exactly tenable. Perhaps they migrate to some distant region, where they spawn. But then the spawning time of this species in the Mediterranean, as is related in a subsequent paragraph, appears to occur in the summer months, at the very time when Sword-fish are most abundant in our own waters, apparently feeling no responsibility for the perpetuation of their species. The Sword-fish when swimming at the surface, usually allows its dorsal fin and the upper lobe of its caudal fin to be visible, projecting out of the water several inches. It is this habit which enables the fisherman to detect the presence of the fish. It swims slowly along, and the fishing schooner with a light breeze finds no difficulty in overtaking it. When excited its motions are very rapid and nervous. Sword-fish are sometimes seen to leap entirely out of the water. Early writers attributed this habit to the tormenting presence of parasites, but this theory seems hardly necessary, knowing what we do of its violent exertions at other times. The pointed head, the fins of the back and abdomen snugly fitting into MOTD LES Sian Kis AND CO LLASS- FISH. 243 grooves, the absence of ventrals, the long, lithe, muscular body, sloping slowly to the tail, fit it for the most rapid and forcible movement through the water. Prof. Richard Owen, testifying in an England court in regard to its power, said: ‘« Tt strikes with the accumulated force of fifteen double-handed ham- mers. Its velocity is equal to that of a swivel-shot, and is as dangerous “in its effects as a heavy artillery projectile.’’ Many very curious instances are on record of the encounters of this fish with other fishes, or of their attacks upon ships. What can be the inducement for it to attack objects so much larger than itself it is hard to surmise. We are all familiar with the couplet from Oppian: Nature her bounty to his mouth confined, Gave him a sword, but left unarmed his mind. It surely seems as if a temporary insanity sometimes takes possession of the fish. It is not strange that, when harpooned, it should retahate by attacking its assailant. An old sword-fish fisherman told Mr. Blackford that his vessel had been struck twenty times. There are, however, many instances of entirely unprovoked assault on vessels at sea. Many of these are recounted in a later portion of this memoir. ‘Their movements when feeding are discussed below, as well as their alleged peculiarities of move- ment during the breeding season. It is the universal testimony of our fishermen that two are never seen swimming close together. Capt. Ashby says that they are always distant from each other at least thirty or*forty feet. The pugnacity of the Sword-fish has become a by-word. Without any special effort on my part numerous instances of their attacks upon vessels have in the last ten years found their way into the pigeon-hole labeled ‘‘Sword-fish.’’ AZelian says (b. xxxli, c. 6) that the Sword-fish has a sharp-pointed snout, with which it is able to pierce the sides of a ship and send it to the bottom, instances of which have been known near a place in Mauritania known as Cotté, not far from the river Lixus, on the African side of the Mediterranean. He describes the sword as like the beak of the ship known as the trireme, which was rowed with three banks of oars. @fhe* ¥ : _— "mn NIGER OF SIDI Sa a PANO DS IOS VALI OI OS 205 The Yellow-backed Rockfish, Sedastichthys maliger, seems to have no distinct name in common use. It ranges from Monterey to Puget Sound, in rather deep water. It is not very common about San Francisco, but many are caught in the Straits of Fuca. It is one of the largest of the species, reaching a weight of six or eight pounds. As a food-fish it is not so good as some of the others. _ The Red Garrupa, Sebastichthys caurinus and sub-species vex7l/aris, is isnown yas, Garrupa,’ ““Rockfsh” and \** Rock-cod.’’ “It reaches a length of twenty inches and a weight of six pounds. It ranges from San Nicolas to Puget Sound, being generally common in water of moderate depth. It is subject to greater variations than any other species in the different parts of its range. It forms about seven per cent. of the total rock-cod catch. Its flesh ranks as about average. The Grass Rockfish, Sebastichthys rastrelliger, like all those of dusky color, is known as. “‘Garrupa.’” At San Francisco it is often called ‘Grass Rockfish,’’ perhaps from its color. It reaches a weight of two to four pounds. It lives in water of moderate depth, and is rather common everywhere from San Nicolas to Humboldt Bay. Its abundance is greatest south of Point Conception. It is said to be the best of all the Rockfish for the table, and to be an especial favorite with the Jews. The Brown Rockfish, Sebastichthys auriculatus, seldom receives a dis- tinctive name from the fishermen. It reaches a weight of three or four pounds, although, as usually seen in the markets, it is smaller than any other of the species. This is owing to the fact that its young are caught in seines in the bay, while those of other species are less frequently taken, and then only in the open ocean. It ranges from San Martin Island to Puget Sound, living in shallow water and entering all the bays, and being taken with a hook from all the wharves. It is thus apparently more abundant than any other species, although in actual numbers probably many of the deep-water forms (S. flavidus, pinniger, rosaceus) far exceed it. As a food-fish it is held in lower esteem than most of the others. The Pesce-Vermiglia, Sebastichthys chlorostictus, 1s called ‘‘ Pesce- Vermiglia,’’ or ‘‘ Vermilion-fish,’’ by the Portuguese fishermen at Monte- rey. It is known only from Monterey Bay and the Farallones, occurring about the rocks in considerable depths of water and being taken only with the hook. In its native haunts itis nota rare species. It reaches a weight of three or four pounds, and is excellent food. 266 AMERICAN FISHES. wo) The inexplicable name of ‘‘ Fly-fish’’ is given to one species, Sebastich- thys rhodochlorts, by the fishermen at Monterey. Like the preceding, it is. known only from very deep water about Monterey and the Farallones. It is one of the smallest species, rarely weighing more than a pound. The Corsair, Sebastichthys rosaceus, is known to the Portuguese fisher- men at Monterey by the name “‘ Corsair,’’ a name of uncertain application transplanted from the Azores. It is one of the smallest species, rarely weighing more than a pound and a half. It ranges from Santa Barbara to San Francisco, in deep water,,and where found, it is the most abund- ant of the red species. When the weather permits outside fishing with trawl-lines this is one of the most abundant species in the San Francisco markets. It ranks high as a food-fish. The Spotted Corsair, Sebastichthys constellatus, in size, distribution, habits and -valwe agrees with the ‘‘Corsair.’’ It is, however, consider— ably less abundant, although not a rare fish in the markets of San Francisco. Two specimens only of the Yellow Rockfish, Sebastichthys umbrosus, are known, both of which are from Santa Barbara. At Monterey, the Spanish-Flag, Sedastichthys rubricinctus, is known by the very appropriate name of ‘‘ Spanish Flag,’’ from its broad bands of red, white, and red. It reaches a weight of about six pounds. It is found in very deep water on rocky reefs about Santa Barbara and Monterey. It ) is perhaps the least common in the markets of all the species, except S. um- brosus. In coloration it is the most brillant fish on the coast. The Red Rockfish, Sedastichthys ruber, is usually the ‘‘ Red Rockfish’’ par excellence. At Monterey it evidently attains a weight of twelve or more: pounds, and 1s called by the Portuguese “Pambor, 9 eames from Santa Barbara to Puget Sound, its abundance increasing to the northward. It lives in water of considerable depth. In the markets of San Francisco it is one of the most common species. Large specimens about Victoria, in the Straits of Fuca, had the skull above the brain infected by an encysted parasite worm. Great numbers of them were seen in the Straits of Fuca, according to Mr. Swan, swimming stupidly near the surface, so torpid that the Indians killed them with clubs. According to the Indians, they had been struck by the Thunder-bird, which, with its companion, the Lightning-fish, causes many of the phe- nomena in that region. ‘The smaller specimens of this species rank well as food-fishes ; the larger ones are likely to be coarse. or tough. TIT LOS LS LS AND FES AL LIES, 267 Sebastichthys miniatus is known to the Portuguese fishermen at Mon- terey as the ‘‘ Rasher,’’ a name of uncertain origin and othography. It ranges from Santa Barbara to San Francisco, living in water of moderate depth. It is comparatively common, and is frequently seen in the markets, though in much less numbers than S. ruber and S. pinniger. In size and quality it agrees closely with S. prnniger. - The Orange Rockfish, Sebastichthys pinniger, is usually called simply “Red Rock-cod’’ or ‘‘ Red Rockfish,’’ and not distinguished from the two preceding. The Portuguese at Monterey know it by the name ‘‘Fhaum,’’ a word of unknown origin. It is one of the largest species, reaching a weight of eight or ten pounds. It ranges from Monterey to Puget Sound, being generally very abundant in deep water, where it is taken on trawl-lines. This is probably the most abundant of the larger species. At San Francisco individuals are often found with black dis- colored areas, looking like ink-blotches, on their sides. No cause for this has been noticed, and if it be a disease it does not seem to discommode the fish. In the market this species grades with S. ruder, and like it, is often split and salted. The Green Garrupa, Sebastichthys atrovirens, is commonly known as ‘¢Garrupa’’ and ‘‘ Green Rockfish,’’ being rarely distinguished from S. rastrelliger. It reaches a weight of about three pounds. It ranges from San Diego to Monterey, being more southerly in its distribution than the other species. It lives in rocky places, in rather shallow water, and is generally common, especially south of Point Conception. It is considered excellent food. i Sebastichthys elongatus 1s known as ‘‘Reina,’’ or the Queen, at Monterey. It is a small fish, reaching a weight of less than two pounds, and lives in deep water about Monterey and the Farallones. It is never very common in the markets, although frequently taken in considerable numbers. The Red Rockfish of Alaska, Sebastichthys proriger, in habits, agrees with S. elongatus. It is usually still smaller, rarely weighing more than a pound. Its range extends northward to the Aleutian Islands, where it reaches a large size, and is of considerable importance as a food-fish. Sebastichthys ovals is known at Monterey as ‘‘Viuva’’ or the Widow; the reason not evident. It reaches a weight of three or four pounds. It is found from Santa Barbara to Monterey, in deep water, and is seldom brought to market. ee 268 AME KI CAN VETS TILES. Sebastichthys sentomelas is very similar to the preceding in size and habits. Thus far it has been only found in deep water outside of Monte- rey Bay. Sebastichthys mystinus, is most generally called the ‘‘ Black Rock- fish,’’ but in Puget Sound is known, with its more abundant relative, Sebastichthys melanops, as the ‘‘ Black Bass.’’ ‘The Portuguese at Monterey callat “ Pesce Prétre,’’ or Priest=tish,) in allusion. to its darkescolonssese different from those -of most of the other. members of the) family. reaches a weight of five pounds, but as usually seen in the markets, varies from two to three. It ranges from Santa Barbara to Vancouver’s Island, inhabiting waters of moderate depths. It is much more abundant about Monterey and San Francisco than either northward or southward, and large numbers are taken in Tomales Bay. In the markets of San Fran- cisco it is found, taking the year through, in greater numbers than any other species. It sells at a lower price than the others, its color causing a prejudice against it, although the quality of the fish doubtless differs little trom: thatorthiemest: . Specimens of the Alaska Black Rockfish, Sedastéchthys cifiatus, from the Islands are in the National Museum. Nothing distinctive is known in regard to its habits, which probably agree with those of S. melanops. The Spotted Black Rockfish, Sebastichthys melanops, is founded with 5S. mystinus by the fishermen, under the name of ‘‘ Black Bass’’ in Puget Sound, -“* Black: Rockhsh”’” im San Francisco, and ‘““Pesceiianemensmrn Monterey. In size-and value it agrees with S. mysicni7s5:ailisramecmis more northerly, from Monterey to Puget Sound, being not very common at San Francisco, and one of the most abundant species in Puget Sound. The Yellow-Tail Rockfish, Sebastichthys flavidus, is occasionally called the “* Green Rockfish’’ or ‘‘ Rock-cod’-at San Francisco. » Ativienteney, it is always known by the appropriate name of ‘‘ Yellow-tail,’’ the caudal fin being always distinctively yellow. To distinguish it from the Yellow- tail of further south we may call it the Yellow-tail Rockfish. This species reaches a weight of six and seven pounds, but its usual weight is about two. It ranges from Santa Catalina Island to Cape Mendocino, and is taken both in deep water and near shore. About Monterey and San Francisco it 1s very abundant, and is one of the principal species in the markets. As a food-fish it is considered as one of the best in the group. About Monterey and San Francisco, the Boccacio, Sebastodes paucispintis, Mea Si ISH ANID SLES AL LLL S: 269 y] is known as ‘‘ Boccacio’ ‘¢Mérou’’ (maroo) to the Portuguese. American fishermen use the name *¢ Jack,’’ and those who fish for the young from the wharves call them ‘“Tom-cod.’’ The name ‘‘Boccacio’’ (Big-mouthed) is very appro-— priate ; ‘‘Mérou’’ is transferred from Atlantic species of Apincphelus ; ‘¢ Jack’’ comes from the species of Asox and Stzostedtum, which in the Southern States are called by thatname. This species is one of the largest of the group, reaching the weight of twelve to fifteen pounds. Its average size in the markets 1s greater than that of any of the others. It ranges from the Santa Barbara Islands to Cape Mendocino. It inhabits reefs in deep water, only the young coming near the shore. It is rather more abundant southward than about San Francisco. It is, however, a common market-fish, and its flesh is considered excellent. It is probably the most voracious of the family. | Five species of the genus Sebastichthys, namely, S. melanops, S. caurinus, S. maliger, S. proriger, and S. czlvatus, attain to large size and consider- able commercial importance in Alaska, and are discussed by Dr. Bean in his paper on the ‘‘ Shore Fisheries of Alaska’’ in another section of this work. S. melanops is called ‘‘ Black Bass’’ at Sitka. The Rock Trouts, Chirid@, a family of fish of considerable importance on our Pacific coast,is that of the Chzrid@, or Rock Trouts, no representa- tives of which are known in the Atlantic. One or two species of the family occur in the sea of Japan. | The Boregata, Hexagrammus Stelleri, is known in Puget Sound by the italian name or “Boregata’’ or ““Boregat.’”’ Whe name ‘‘ Starling’ is applied to some fish, supposed by us to be this species, in the Straits of Fuca. It reaches a length of fifteen inches and a weight of three pounds. It ranges from Puget Sound to Kamtchatka. In Puget Sound it is com- paratively abundant, hving about rocks. It spawns in July. It feeds on crustaceans, worms, and fishes, and apparently gets its food on the bottom in deep water, as the animals taken from its stomach are often of a kind not seen near shore. Its intestines are very often full of long teenioid or *‘ Boccac’’ (do0catch) to the Italians, and as - worms, supposed to be parasitic. As a food-fish, it ranks with the other Rock-trout, being of fair quality, but inferior to Ophzodon and Sebastichthys. The name ‘‘ Boregata,’’ is applied to the Green Rock Trout, Mexa- grammus decagrammus, by the Italians on Puget Sound. The name ‘Rock Cod”’ is also given to it. From San Francisco southward, the 27 AMERICAN FISHES. names “‘ Rock Trout’’ and ‘‘Sea Trout’’ are common. The Portuguese at Monterey call it ‘‘Bodieron.’’ It reaches a length of fifteen inches and a weight of two or three pounds. It ranges from San Luis Obispo to Alaska, and is much more generally common than any of the other species, and large numbers are brought into the market of San Francisco. It lives in rocky places of no great depth. It feeds voraciously on crustaceans and worms. Itspawnsin July. It dies at once on being taken from the water, and the flesh becomes rigid and does not keep as well as that of the rock-fish. It is a food-fish of fair quality, but not of fine. The sexes are very unlike in color, and have been taken for distinct species. THE CULTUS COD. The Cultus Cod, Ophzodon elongatus, is universally called ‘‘ Cod-fish,’’ where the true cod is unknown: About Puget Sound the English call it ‘“Ting.’’ Among the-Americans the word’ “cod” is used yamamsente distinctive adjective, as Cultus Cod (‘‘cultus’’ in the Chinook jargon, meaning of Wiile worsh), “Bastard Cod,’ “ Buttalo. Cody icremmmaunc name ‘‘ Blue Cod’? 1s also given to it from the color of its /ileshwameene name ‘‘ Rock Cod ’’ applied to other Chiroids and to Sebastichthys, and thence even transferred to Serranus, comes from an appreciation of their affinity to Ophiodon, and not from any supposed resemblance to the true cod-fish. The Cultus Cod reaches a length of five feet, and a weight of fifty or sixty pounds, the largest specimens being taken in northern waters. Many very small ones come into the San Francisco market, being taken in the sweep-nets of the paranzelle. These weigh less than a pound; the average of the large ones is from six to ten pounds. It ranges from Santa Barbara to Alaska, being very abundant everywhere north of Point Con- ception. It lives about rocky places,,and sometimes in considerable depths, and spawns in summer. It feeds upon fishes and crustacea and is excessively voracious. It often swallows a red rockfish when the latter is IGE SEL O)SIO A LUSTER VAIN ID) IES W|I OIE TBS 2 on the hook, and is thus taken. Like other large fishes, it is subject to the attacks of the hag-fish (Polistrotrema). As a food-fish it holds a high rank, being considered rather superior to the rockfish. From its great abundance, it is one of the most important fishes on the Pacific coast. Laniolepis latipinnis ranges from San Francisco northward in deep water. ‘It reaches a length of about a foot, and is of no economic value. The bright-colored little fish, Oxylebcus pictus, ranges from Santa Bar- bara to Vancouver’s Island, living among rocks near shore... It reaches a length of six inches, is rarely taken and is then used only for bait. THE BESHOW. The Beshow, Axoplopoma fimbria, is generally known in Puget Sound by the name of ‘‘ Horse-mackerel.’” At San Francisco it is usually called ‘*Candle-fish.’’ In the market it is sometimes fraudulently sold as Spanish mackerel. It reaches a iength of twenty inches and a weight of five pounds. It ranges from Monterey northward to Sitka, in rather deep water, and is generally common, especially northward. At Seattle it is one of the most abundant fishes, but in the San Francisco market it is seldom seen in large numbers. It feeds on crustaceans, worms, and small fishes. In the Straits of Fuca it reaches a much larger size thaa has been noticed elsewhere. It is here very highly valued by the Indians, accord- ing to Mr. Swan. It is called by the Indians ‘‘ Beshow,’’ and is the ‘«« Black-cod,’’ of recent writers. Mr. James G. Swan has given a full report upon its habits in a recent Bulletin of the Fish Commission,* and has forwarded some of the salted fish for examination. The writer is not prepared to give to Axoplopoma a position as yet among the finest of American fishes, although it is no doubt an excellent kind for local 7 consumption. | * Vol. V. 1885, pp. 225-34. Be AME RICAN, LISLTLSS:. In Alaska, according to Dr. Bean, the most important chiroid fishes are Ophiodon elongatus, Anoplopoma fimbria, Hexagrammus decagrammus, H. lagocephalus, H. ordinatus, H. asper, and the ‘* Yellow-fish,’’ ‘‘ Striped Fish,’’ or ‘* Atka Mackerel,’’ Pleurogrammus monopterygius (Pallas) Gill, which is the chief of them all.. Vhis’fish is most abundantVaboutywne Aleutian chain and the Shumagins, its northern limit as now understood being about Kodiak, and its western limit at Atka. It congregates in immense schools, and can be taken in purse-seines like the mackerel, which it strongly resembles in taste after being salted in the same manner. In this connection, not because of zoological affinities, but in order that a majority of the principal food-fishes of the Pacific slope may be dis- cussed in one chapter, it seems appropriate to refer to the Embiotocoids or Surf-fishes. Full descriptions of the various members of this multiform genus are given by President Jordan in his ‘‘ Synopsis’’ and in the great Fisheries quarto. Here I can only quote what the same authority has to 9 say of the group as a whole: ‘« This remarkable group of fishes forms the most characteristic feature of the fauna of our Pacific coast. -Of the nineteen species now known, all but one (Ditrema Temminckt of Japan) occur on the coast of California, and most of them in very great abundance. ‘The species are most of them very similar in habits and economic value, and the following general remarks are proffered before proceeding to the discussion of the different species. ‘©The general name ‘‘ Perch’’ is applied to these fishes everywhere along the coast. ‘This unfortunate misnomer came about from their re- semblance to the sun-fishes or ‘‘ perch ’’ of the Southern States, and to the ‘white perch,’’ Roccus americanus, of the East. On the coast of Oregon Hare « Nencetete cs (especially Damalchthys argyrosomus) are called ot Porgy?’ 6 ‘¢ Porgee,’’ in allusion to their undoubted resemblance to the scup or eet of the Bast. Whe names “Minny,” “ Spameacayvavamel ‘*Moharra,”’ are also- applied to the smaller species northward Abou San Francisco, the mame **“Perch’’ is given to them all, as welllasitom7aze- plites interrupius, and separate names for the different species are seldom heard. From Monterey southward, the name “ Surf-fish’’ is in common use, although the name ‘‘ Perch’? is still more common. ‘¢The largest, Rhacochilus toxotes, reaches a weight of four pounds ; the smallest, A4cona minima, a length of four or five inches. So far as we are able to judge, the growth of the young are quite rapid, as the specimens are about half grown the first winter, and probably reach full size in two and a half to three winters—perhaps, in some cases, in the second year. ‘¢ The center of distribution of this, group'is from Samta Barbaraaco DEE TOS LSD AID) SIS VAL LIES. 273. Tomales Bay. Northward the number of species decreases, while the number of individuals is perhaps, equally great as far as the Gulf of Georgia. Southward both individuals and species rapidly diminish in number. ‘¢ Their range probably extends from Cerros Island to Sitka; certainly no further. Most of them hve in shallow water, on a sandy bottom, both in the open sea and in sheltered bays. A seine drawn in the surf will often be filled with the silvery species (Amphistichus ; flolconotus), and a seine drawn in a bay may be equally full of Dztrema laterale, Ditrema Jackson, etc. One species is confined to the fresh waters. Nearly all of them feed chiefly on crustacea, together with such small fish as they can swallow. ‘The species of Adcona are chiefly herbivorous, feeding on seaweed. / ‘ a method sufficiently skeptical no doubt, but not necessarily scientific. He saw one those which have come ‘‘ under his own personal knowledge,’ forty-six and a half inches long, weighing thirty-five pounds, and ascer- tained to be about thirteen years old, another thirty inches long, weighing twenty-four pounds, another of forty-three inches, and twenty-eight pounds, and forty-four inches and thirty-two pounds, and two others, one forty-six and a half inches, and thirty-five pounds, and one forty-six inches, and thirty-six pounds, were taken by his friend. Mr. Jardine. Daniell, in his ‘‘ Rural Sports,’’ speakes of a Scotch example, seventy-two pounds, and over seven feet in length. Pennell refers to others captured on the Continent, which weighed 80, 97, and 145 pounds, the latter caught at Bregenty in 1862. There is no inherent improbability in these stories, since the Muskel- lunge often attains the weight of eighty pounds or more, as is attested by numerous witnesses. : No records of colossal Pike are found in the annals of American anglers—perhaps because the large Pike are usually pronounced by uncriti- cal anglers to be in Muskellunge. The western Pickerel, Hsox vermiculatus, said to have been known to. the Indians by the name /zccanau, has been known to attain the weight of twenty pounds,* but at the present day never exceeds seven or eight, and as usually seen, is not more than a foot inlength. The eastern brook Pickerel is likewise diminutive. | In his census investigation of the Great Lakes, Mr. Kumlien obtained the following notes upon the abundance of the Pike and Muskellunge : ‘On the western shore of Lake Michigan, Pike appear to be resident in those portions of the lake off Racine, and are very rarely taken in giil- nets. At the west end of Lake Erie, individuals are at rare intervals taken * Mississippi. TAGS ee NV AOS KOLO TE CIN GHE A INDD F2I OKEEa Te My, 28 2, ro in pound-nets set in the deepest water. About Sandusky and vicinity, like the Muskellunge, they are said to be rather rare, though a few taken in winter around Put-in-Bay Island are there regarded as residents of cold, deep water. Above Cleveiand they are not known to the fishermen, but ‘in the vicinity of Ashtabula, considerable numbers are sometimes taken in spring—one or two hundred pounds at a haul of a pound-net. On the south shore of Lake Erie, very few are taken in pounds, and it is there thought that they keep constantly in deep water and seldom approach the shore. They are very salable and much sought after, but apparently nowhere abundant.’’ _ Among the Islands dotting the southwestern part of Lake Superior, in- cluding the Apostle Islands, Sand, York, and Rock Islands, and others, Muskellunge are caught in small quantities in the pound-nets. The Muskel- lunge is occasionally caught in the small bays indenting the shore south of Keweenaw Point as far as Huron Bay, and with it a large and much lighter-colored fish that may possibly be Zsox /uctus. This latter is not well known among the fishermen, but Mr. Edgarton says he has often noticed it, and has remarked that the general aspect was different from that of the Muskellunge. On the fishing grounds at the north end of Green Bay this is a rare fish, only half a dozen or so being taken each year. When it occurs it is found at any and at no particular point. Not a single specimen of this fish was taken by Mr. Nelson in ten year’s fish- ing in the Cedar River district, and Mr. Everland in thirty-six years has not taken half a dozen. They are reported of occasional occurrence in the Monomonee River; but are not found in deep nets far out in the bay. Lower down on the west coast of Green Bay, from Longtail Point to Peshtigo Point, this fish occurs everywhere, but nowhere in abundance. A specimen was taken at Washington Island in 1866 that weighed forty- four pounds.. The fishermen of this stretch of coast-line pronounce it Musk-ka-lone. At Green Bay City this fish is caught frequently weighing ‘forty pounds. It is common at this point, z. e. the southern end of Green Bay. Ascending the eastern shore of Green Bay as far as St. Martin’s Island the Muskellunge is very rare, being known by name only to a great many of the fishermen. Following the western shore of Lake Michigan southward from Port des Mortes on the north, as far south as Manitowoc, this fish is rare. At Jacksonport two have been taken in seven years. At Two Rivers only one has ever been recorded, viz., in 1878. At Manito- 284 AMERICAN FISHES. woc it is less scarce, being caught sometimes in pound-nets, and more frequently in the River. At Milwaukee, the Muskellunge occurs in the lake but rarely ; itis never caught in gill-nets. In 1868 Mr. Schultz took -one in a small seine, in the old harbor, weighing one hundred pounds. This is believed by Mr. Kumlien to be a fact, having been testified to, as he says, ‘‘by so many reliable persons.’’ He acdae ‘« Formerly, fshsion this kind weighing eighty pounds were far from rare.’ On the oth of April, a fish of this species four feet in length y was taken at Racine; head to operculum, ten inches; to eye, four inches; greatest circumference, twenty and one-half inches; over eye, eighteen inches; at gills, eighteen inches; weight, forty-five pounds. These fish are never here taken in the gill-nets; they are resident in the lake about Racine in winter. A very few have been known to occur at Waukegan. On the southeastern shore of Lake Michigan, including the fisheries of Saugatuck, South Haven, and St. Joseph, this fish 1s reported as always being of a large size. At Ludington, farther north, only one instance of capture is on record ; it is also said to be very rare at Grand Haven. But little has been reported regarding the occurrence of the Muskel- lunge upon the numerous fishing grounds along the north shore of the southern peninsula of Michigan, between Little Traverse Bay and Thunder Bay. It is generally rare through the Straits of Mackinaw, only about half a dozen being taken each season ; and most abundant of all at Les Cheneaux. Islands. Capt. Coats caught one here, in 18745) werehime sixty-two pounds. These fish are rarely taken in pound-nets, and are chiefly caught with hook and line about the Les Cheneaux and Drummond Islands. Capt. Dingman has caught only one in his pound-net 1n the past fifteen years: - All caught, of which he has heard, have been Marse=slm Thunder Bay, about a dozen, on an average, are taken in twelve months. In Saginaw Bay, they are taken in about the same numbers as in Thunder Bay. Here too they are always large fish. A few are taken in seines along the coast between Port aux Barques and Port Huron. A few also are taken annually in the St. Clair River; perhaps a dozen or two alto- gether in this region during a year. Between Toledo and Detroit River, Lake Erie, a specimen of this fish is taken now and then in the pound- nets. When taken, it is always large. The same remark will apply to the vicinity of Toledo and Maumee Bay.* * Mr. Fred Alford states that he procured a Muskellunge from Maumee Bay, in 1864, weighing eighty-five pounds. PES NGOS TKEIPL LDOING LH WAIN), ERC K Te EL. 285 About Locust Point a few are taken in the fall. Twenty years ago, in this region, including the fisheries of Ottawa, Port Clinton, Toussaint, and Locust Point, Muskellunge were taken weighing sixty or seventy pounds. In Sandusky Bay, specimens are caught of forty-five pounds weight, and at Kelley’s Island one was caught weighing fifty-seven pounds, and another sixty-two pounds. ‘In connection with the Huron (Ohio) fisheries, 1f is reported that about one hundred and fifty fish of this species were taken in seventy-five nets during the year 1879. They are here generally large, and are always taken in pairs. ‘Three or four represent a year’s catch of this fish at Ver- million, Ohio. About Black River, Lorain County, Ohio, Amherst, and Brownhelm Bay, it 1s very scarce, few being caught in nets; all that are taken are large. Of this fish, in connection with the Cleveland and Dover Bay fisheries, it may be said that it is very rare, and is becoming more so each year. Mr. Sadler says he took one weighing eighty pounds. ‘The fishermen say they are always found in pairs. ‘The Muskellunge is taken at Conneaut, at the rate of half a dozen in ten years. Only one specimen was taken in the Painesville pounds in 1879. At Fairport and Willoughby, Ohio, no mention is made of its occurrence. Erie Bay, especially at Dunkirk and Barcelona, New York, Erie, Pennsylvania, and Mill’s Grove, Ohio, is famous for its Muskellunge fishing ; this past season, over sixty were caught, weighing from twenty to forty-five pounds. They are caught by trawling. Fancy prices are paid for them; about twenty-five cents per pound retail in the city, and twelve and a half cents when shipped. More were caught during the season of 1879 than ever before. The following notes relate to the fishery in Lake Ontario: At Oswego, the fish is very rare on the American side; at Port Ontario, one is -occa- sionally caught ; at Cape Vincent, they are common, especially in the St. Lawrence. Nine have been brought in in one day, the smallest of which weighed thirty-two pounds. They are not now, however, so plentiful here as formerly. At Chaumont very few are caught. Seven years ago one was captured here weighing sixty-five pounds. At Sacket’s Harbor, very few Muskellunge are caught. The Pike is in Europe considered one of the most important of game fishes. Isaac Walton devotes to it an entire chapter, and Mr. Cholmon- deley-Pennell, a well-known English writer on anghng, has published a consideraplemwore, entivied: caught one entire trip of fish on George’s Bank all in the night, and there are other instances on record, though, as a rule, these fish feed only in the daytime. The Cod is one of the most prolific of the ocean fishes, and we find not only thousands but millions of eggs in a single female. All members of this family contain large number of eggs, but the Codfish is the most pro- lific of all. Mr. Earll writes as follows: ‘ Ww psa’ Ncuils nN My ws us was THE TENCH. The Tench, Z7xca vulgaris, the Schleihe of Germany, and the Tanche of France has already become acclimated in our waters, particularly in the Potomac, and will soon be available for the uses of anglers. It frequents streams and ponds with muddy bottoms, and is partial to weedy places. It is exceedingly tenacious of life, and even when grown in foul water has delicate white flesh, which many prefer to that of the Carp. Both Tench and Carp are better if kept in clear, cool water for a few days, and the slime should be washed off their scales with warm water before they are cooked. I have eaten the Schlei in Bremen, and can’ speak welloum for in flavor and texture it resembles the . American) jplieieh ya, praise is, however, but feeble compared with that of Badham, who writes: ‘¢TIn spite of the prejudice entertained by some Italian doctors, and all the old women of Italy, who believe this fish to be so impregnated with marsh malaria as necessarily to engender ague. Nessuno mangia tenca Che febre non senta. At Florence it is held superior to any fishy food which enters the market, and in the Neapolitan pescheria yields to very few finer marine species. A CAT DACH AND MINNOW: 419 Florentine noble once had the hardihood to assert at lle X.’s table that there was nothing which swam the sea, to his mind, comparable toa good Tuscan Wench ; which declaration, though it cony nilsed the native Romans assem- bled at the board with laughter at the simplicity ofso poor a connoisseur, we ‘should certainly have sided with, and been willing to back an Agnano or Thrasymene ‘Tenca’ against the whole of the Mediterranean ichthyarchy.’’* _ The season for Tench fishing in Germany is from July to October. The waters are ground-baited on the day before with angle-worms or wash- larve, and the method of angling is the same as for the Carp. The Tench is an animal, which, like the owl and the weasel, was in former days looked upon with veneration and even awe, and is an im- portant accession to our fauna if only by reason of the wealth of fable which it brings in its wake. «* Elamimer- head Sucker,’’ Cafostomus nigricans, abounds in most waters from the great lakes southward. The Stone-roller is extremely abundant in every run- ning stream in the North and West, where its singular, almost comical form is familiar to every school-boy. It delights in rapids and shoals, preferring cold and clear water. Its powerful pectorals render it a swifter swimmer than any other of its family. Its habit is to rest motionless on the bot- tom, where its mottled colors render it difficult to distinguish from the ~ stones among which it lies. When disturbed it darts away very quickly, after the manner of the etheostomoids. They often go in small schools. 436 AMERICAN: FISHES. . I have never found this fish in really muddy water. Although called the ‘¢Mud Sucker’’ in the brooks, it is most characteristically a fish of the running streams. This species reaches a length of about two feet, and is. often caught in its spawning season by means of a spear or snare. It is, like C. commersont, a ‘‘ boy’s fish,’’ and not worth the eating. It is hardy in the aquarium, and like its handsome cousin, Catostomus melanops, the Striped Sucker is recommended for domestication by Cope. The suckers afford sport of an exciting kind to those who know how to. capture them with snares of horse-hair or fine wire. I have thus caught them in Dutchess County, N. Y., where this method is greatly in favor. Vast quantities are taken in the sluiceways of dams, and by spearing by torch-light or ‘‘ weequashing.’’ THE CHUB SUCKER—ERIMYZON SUCCETTA. The “Chub Sucker,” 27imyzon succetia, the << Sweets ouekema mot ‘‘ Creek-fish,’’ 1s one of the most abundant and widely diffused of the Suckers, being found from Maine to Texas.> It 1s oncom theycmaliesn species, reaching a length of little more than a foot.” A‘ closely @relared species abounds in Florida, where it was first collected by the author, and has been named by Jordan 4rimyzon Goodet. Hallock says that the ‘]Chub-sueker, is often calledstheeaibareles The Black Horse, Cycleptus elongatus, also called ‘‘ Missouri Sucker,’’ ‘« Gourd-seed. Sucker,” ‘