580 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



of 75 pounds. It inhabits the Atlantic coast from New York 

 to Texas, and has once been taken near Cape Cod. 



A red drum, or spotted bass, weighing 14 pounds, was ob- 

 tained by Mr E. G. Blackford from New Jersey, and was pur- 

 chased alive for the New York aquarium. At the time of writ- 

 ing (December 11, 1897) it is in the central pool, and is, appar- 

 ently, in perfect health. It swims sometimes immediately under 

 the sand shark. Its food consists of large pieces of herring, 

 which it takes readily. 



The only specimen known to have been taken at Cape Cod was 

 caught in a trap in Buzzards bay at the breakwater in 1894. 

 The example is 34 inches long and weighs about 14 pounds. On 

 account of the ocellated markings at the base of the caudal fin 

 it has sometimes been called the branded drum. 



Genus L.EIOSTOMUS Lace'pexle 



Body oblong, ovate, the back compressed; head obtuse; mouth 

 small, horizontal, the upper jaw with a band of feeble teeth, 

 the lower nearly or quite toothless; slits and pores of upper 

 jaw well developed; lower pharyngeals separate, the teeth 

 paved; preopercle with a membranaceous border; dorsal spines 

 10, slender, rather high, the last connected with the soft rays; 

 soft dorsal and anal long; anal spines two, the second not large; 

 caudal fin emarginate; gill membranes slightly connected; gill 

 rakers slender. This genus is distinguished from S c i a e n a 

 chiefly by the obsolescence of the teeth in the lower jaw, and 

 by the more paved teeth of the pharyngeals. The soft rays of 

 the dorsal fin and specially of the anal are more numerous than 

 in related groups. One species. 



283 Leiostomus xanthurus Lacep&de 

 Spot; Lafayette 



Leiostomus xanthurus LACEPEDE, Hist. Nat. Poiss. IV, 439, pi. 10, fig. 1, 

 1802, Carolina; CUVIEK & VALENCIENNES, Hist. Nat. Poiss. V, 142, 

 1830; DE KAY, N. Y. Fauna, Fishes, 70, 1842, extralimital; JORDAN 

 & GILBERT, Bull. 16, TJ. S. Nat. Mus. 574, 18S3; BEAN, Bull. U. S. F. C. 

 VII, 141, 1888; 9th Rep. Oomm. Fish. N. Y. 260, 1890; Bull. Am. 

 Mus. Nat. Hist. IX, 367, 1897; EUGENE SMITH, Proc. Linn. Soc. N. Y. 

 1897, 39, 1898; MEARNS, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. X, 321, 1898; H. M. 

 SMITH, Bull. U. S. F. C. 1897, 101, 1898; JORDAN & EVERMANN, Bull. 

 47, U. S. Nat. Mus. 1458, 1898, pi. COXXIII, fig. 569, 1900. 



