THE STRIPED BASS. 



and " Green-head." In old books it is sometimes called the "Streaked- 

 bass." 



The generic name, Roccus, a barbarous derivative from the common 

 name of the 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 Orleans it is found in the market quite often. An eighteen- 

 pound specimen was sold there in March, 1880." 



In Hallock's "Sportsman's Gazetteer" the following statement occurs : 

 "It 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 interruptus, 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 



