SEA DRUM AND LAKE DRUM. 137 



noise which is heard, especially in the breeding season, and is doubtless 

 the signal by which the fish call to their mates. This habit of drumming 

 is shared by many fishes of this family, but appears to be most highly de- 

 veloped in the Drum, and in a European species known as the INIaigre, 

 ScicBim aqiiila. M. Dufosse has investigated, very thoroughly, the physio- 

 logical causes of these sounds, which appear to depend largely upon the 

 action of the air-bladder. 



The northern limit of the species appears to be d>:^fined by Cape Cod. 

 In 1873, Mr. J'^nies H. Blake captured one at Provincetown. Another, 

 of twenty-five pounds' weight, was secured by Vinal Edwards for the Fish 

 Commission from Rogers's pound, Quisset, Mass., July, 1874; another 

 large individual, of sixty pounds' w^eight, was taken near Noank. Conn., 

 July 10, 1874, the third instance of its capture known to the fishermen of 

 that vicinity. 



Schoepf, writing about the year 1786, says that they were at that time 

 very rare about New York, though he had occasionally seen them at the 

 city market, where they met with sale, though their flesh was none of the 

 hardest. 



The Drums captured north of Sandy Hook have been, so far as I can 

 learn, large adult fish. Prof. Baird found the young fish of this species very 

 abundant in August in the small bays along the shores of Beesley's Point, 

 N. J., though few were seen in the rivers. Its southern limit is some- 

 where in the Gulf of Mexico, but has not been accurately ascertained. 



The young are very dissimilar to the adult fish, though the fishermen in 

 Florida and elsewhere recognize the actual relations. In this respect they 

 are more discriminating than the ichthyologist Holbrook, who described 

 them as distinct species. The adult is known as the " Black Drum," the 

 young as the " Striped Drum." In addition to the marked differences in 

 color, the young has a much more shapely body than the adult, much 

 higher in proportion to its length. The full-grown fish sometimes weigh 

 eighty pounds, though the average is perhaps not more than one-quarter 

 as large. They are sluggish swimmers, and are especially adapted to life 

 on the bottom, where their long, sensitive barbels aid them in their search 

 for buried treasures of food. They feed upon all bottom-dwelling inver- 

 tebrates. Their teeth are extremely heavy and pavement-like ; their jaws 

 are provided with very powerful muscles, by means of which they can crush 

 with great ease the shells of the most strongly protected invertebrates. 



