86 AMERICAN FISHES. 



year, they are constantly active. The Sheepshead feeds almost exclusively 

 upon hard-shelled animals, mollusks and barnacles, and particularly on 

 young oysters as they grow, attached to stones and sticks of wood. With 

 its strong cutting and grinding 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 high, then 

 floated to the place desired, and sunk in eight feet of water by casting 

 stones or live-oak timber within. As soon as the barnacles are formed, 

 which will happen in a few weeks, the fish will begin to resort to the 

 ground. It is sometimes requisite to do more before you can succeed in 

 your wishes. The greatest enemies of this fish are the sharks and por- 

 poises, which pursue them incessantly and destroy them, unless they can 

 find secure hiding-places to which to retreat. Two of these pens, near each 

 other, will furnish this protection ; and when that course is not adopted, 

 piles driven near each other, quite surrounding the pen, will have the same 

 effect. Your work complete, build a light staging by driving down four 

 upright posts at a distance of fifteen feet from the pen, and then take your 

 station on it, provided with a light, flexible, and strong cane reed, of 

 twenty feet length, with fourteen feet of line attached, a strong hook and 

 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 lie on the bottom. The Sheepshead is a shy 

 fish, and takes the bait more confidently if it lies on the bottom. When 

 he bites you perceive your rod dipping for the water ; give a short, quick 

 jerk, and then play him at your leisure. If the fish is large, and your jerk 



