THE SEA BASSES. 43 



torpid state. Like the tautog, they appear to have a habit of lying under 

 loose stones and in cavities among the rocks. I have observed this habit 

 in the tanks of the New York Aquarium, my attention having been called 

 to their movements by Mr. Fred. Mather. In the South they are feeding 

 all the year. I have seen them taken in February on the Snapper Banks 

 at the mouth of the St. Johns, at St. Augustine, and along the wharves 

 of Charleston. 



The food of this species, as of its associates upon the same grounds, 

 consists of crabs, shrimps, squids and small fish. It is stated that the 

 intestines of mackerel and the stomachs of menhaden are considered the 

 best bait about Wood's Holl, Mass., while further south, shrimps and 

 pieces of the flesh of fishes, such as small sharks, are frequently used. 

 They are voracious feeders and readily attracted ; their mouths are tough 

 and leathery, so that when once hooked they are not easily lost. 



Scott states that their feeding time is during the lull of the waters 

 between the turn of the tides, when they are easily taken by the angler. 

 In the North the Sea-Bass occupies the feeding grounds in company with 

 the scuppaug or porgy, the flounder and the tautog, while in the South its 

 associates are the red snapper and the various species of grunt, and on the 

 inshore grounds, among the rocks, it occurs in company with the sheeps- 

 head and the king-fish. 



The breeding time is believed to occur in July and August. Mr. Dyer, 

 of Naushon, states that the Sea-Bass, when they come into the pounds in 

 the spring, are full of spawn, ready to shoot. Young fish, one or two 

 inches long, are abundant among the eel-grass along the shores of Southern 

 New England. In the Gulf of Mexico, according to Stearns, they spawn 

 in early summer, and the young are caught in July and August. 



The average size of the fish in New England is about one-and-one-half 

 pounds. A Sea-Bass nine inches long weighs about five ounces ; ten inches 

 long, six to ten ounces ; eleven inches long, nine to twelve ounces ; twelve 

 inches long, ten to sixteen ounces ; while the length of a three-pound fish 

 varies from eighteen to twenty inches. They occasionally attain the weight 

 of four or five pounds, but this is unusual. In the South they are, as a rule, 

 much smaller than in the North. This is especially the case in the Gulf 

 of Mexico. In these waters, and along the southern part of the South 

 Atlantic coast, they rarely exceed a pound in weight. Large male fish 

 are remarkable on account of the presence of a large hump upon the 



