2 S8 AMERICAN FISHES. 



These fishes were held in the highest esteem in classical days, for num- 

 erous species of the group frequent the waters of Italy and Greece. 



" According to the Greeks," writes Badham, '• to do justice to their 

 flesh was not easy, to speak of their trail as it deserved was impossi- 

 ble, and to throw away even its excrement was a sin. The frugal Numa 

 would not allow these expensive ' brains of Jove ' {Cerebrum [oris Supremi 

 was a poetic name for the Scarus) to be imported for public entertainments, 

 intimating thereby that parsimony was agreeable to the gods." 



Aristotle considered the Scarus to be the only fish which slept at night. 



"Scarus alone their folded eyelids close 

 In grateful intervals of soft repose 

 In some sequestered cell, removed from sight 

 They doze away the dangers of the night." 



This ancient and aristocratic family is rather tropical in its tastes, but we 

 have two worthy though not very highly appreciated representatives on our 

 Eastern Atlantic coast, and others in our Gulf and Pacific waters. 



One of the best known shore species on our Atlantic coast, is the 

 Tautog or Black-fish, Tautoga onitis. This fish is now found in greater 

 or less abundance about St. John, N. B., to Charleston, S. C. East of 

 New York it is usually called Tautog, a name of Indian origin, which first 

 occurs in Roger William's "Key to American Language," printed in 

 1643, in which this fish is enumerated among the edible species of Southern 

 New England. "Tautog" would consequently seem to be a word from 

 the dialect of the Narragansett Indians. On the coast of New York it is 

 called "Black-fish"; in New Jersey also "Black-fish" and "Smooth 

 Black-fish," "Tautog," or "Chub"; on the eastern shore of Virginia 

 ••.Moll," or "Will-George"; at the mouth of the Chesapeake "Salt- 

 water Chub," and in North Carolina the "Oyster-fish." Of all these 

 names, Tautog is by far the most desirable for general use. There are 

 several other species along our coast called Black-iish, especially the sea- 

 bass, which is often associated with the Tautog. The names Oyster-fish 

 and Chub are also pre-engaged by other species. 



Though the present geographical distribution of the Tautog is well 

 understood, there is no reason to believe that its range has been very 

 considerably extended in the present century by the agency of man. 

 That the species was known in Rhode Island two hundred and thirty 

 years ago is reasonably certain from the reference by Roger Williams, 



