Gudgei — Notes on Some Hum fart, N. C, Fishes. 173 



" Straits," was 17 inches long. After death the tip of the caudal became 

 a fine cobalt blue working up toward purple as time passed. On the fol- 

 lowing day two others were taken in North River. One, measuring 17\> 

 inches over all, had the black spots at the root of the tail as shown by 

 Smith ( 1907 ) in plate 19, but lacked the lateral one. The other measured 

 25 inches and had 2 spots at the root of the caudal, hut the lateral mark- 

 ing was on the right side just below and behind the junction of the 

 spinous and soft parts of the dorsal. 



Menticirrhus americanus (Linnaeus). 



SKA MULLET. 



The largest sea mullet, taken hy the laboratory crew in 1910, measured 

 I-V, inches in length and weighed 2 pounds. These fish occasionally run 

 to •"> pounds in weight but such specimens are rare. On June 20, 1911, 

 ('apt. Lewis took in Newport River two measuring lo)4 inches each. 



Pogonias chromis (Linnaeus). 



SEA DRUM; BLACK DRUM. 



('apt. Oscar Noe, superintendent of a menhaden fish factory at Beau- 

 fort, reports that about May 10, 1911, a menhaden boat in making a 

 catch of that fish outside, took and brought in a great school of sea drum. 

 These equalled 50,000 menhaden measure, i. e., filled a great bin to the 

 point that 50,000 menhaden would have done. Schools of these drum 

 are often a great nuisance to the menhaden fishermen. 



Ceratacanthus schoepfii (Walbaum). 



KILE-FISH; FOOL-FISH. 



On June 9, 1^10, there was taken near the upper beacon in Newport 

 River a large file-fish. Its length all over was 18 inches, the depth was 

 <; 7 8 inches, the greatest thickness \% inches, and its weight \% pounds. 

 The ground color of this fish was a dirty cream and this was flecked over 

 the whole body with bright orange. The anus measured \l of an inch, a 

 long narrow slit with its edges closely beset with granulations. A long 

 bone extended on the ventral side from the throat region clear back to 

 the middle of the belly. Under the forward end of this bone and between 

 the bases of the pectoral arches, and completely separated from the belly 

 cavity hy these bones lay the heart in close juxtaposition to the gills. 

 This heart was curiously elongated, measuring about one inch in length. 



On June 9, 1911, another large specimen of this fish was taken in the 

 laboratory pound net. Its extreme length was 1734 inches, depth 6J4 

 inches; its dorsal spine was 2% inches long, and the diameter of its eye 

 % of an inch. Its general color was a hright orange yellow, while in the 

 dorsal region it was a dirty brownish black. 



Smith assigns 2 feet as the maximum size of this fish, hut these two are 

 the largest the writer has seen. The second one unfortunately could not 

 be dissected. 



