ACANTHOPTERYGII. 311 



from the shore as the daurades do, which never approach it in 

 winter, except when pursued by some large fish. 



The American seas support many sargi, among which there 

 is one belonging to the United States bearing a very close 

 resemblance to the first species of this genus ; it is called the 

 sheep's-head (Spargus, or Spams ovis.) 



Schcepf observed this fish, and designates it under the name 

 which it still bears at the present day. He gives a recog- 

 nizable description of it in his Memoir on the Fish of North 

 America. According to him the sheep's-head is in great esti- 

 mation. It approaches the coasts during summer, and its 

 principal aliment consists of small shell-fish. 



It is astonishing enough that a species so common should 

 have been unknown to Linnaeus; and that Gmelin, in his 

 compilation, should have paid no attention to the description 

 of Schcepf. We find no subsequent description of it but in 

 the Memoir of Dr. Mitchill on the fishes of New York. He 

 there speaks in highly eulogistic terms of the flesh of this fish, 

 and of the high esteem in which it is held by the inhabitants 

 of New York. " The sheep's-head" he tells us, " may be 

 served up upon the most sumptuous tables, because, perhaps, 

 it does not yield in flavour to any fish, the trout and salmon 

 excepted. The price varies from a dollar to a dollar and a 

 half for an individual of the middle size, and beyond this size 

 the price rises from four to seven pounds sterling. Some have 

 been seen weighing from fourteen to fifteen pounds." " No- 

 thing," says Dr. Mitchill, " can surpass, in the opinion of a 

 native of New York, a sheep's-head boiled." 



This sargus is one important object of fishery on the coasts 

 of the State of New York. It approaches those of Long 

 Island in the hot season from the month of June to the middle 

 of September, a period about which it again buries itself in 

 the depths of the ocean. Some of them remain rather late, 

 and Mitchill has seen them brought, in the year 1814, to the 



