230 AMERICAN FISHES. 



inches in length, until there is a general movement towards the sea. It is 

 believed that the adult fish spawn in the bays, but the only evidence to 

 support that belief is that they come inside with spawn, go away with it, 

 and that very young fish are found there. In October and November 

 small Hard-tails are caught in Santa Rosa Sound, measuring five and six 

 inches in length. 



"The smallest of the spring run are nine or ten inches long. Adult fish 

 measure twelve, fourteen, and fifteen inches in length, very rarely more 

 than the last. During the months of October and November, Hard-tails 

 leave the bays, formed in small schools and swimming below the surface 

 in deep water. The only time that they can then be seen is when they 

 cross the ' bars ' at the inlet or sandy shoals in the bay. A few stragglers 

 remain in Pensacola Bay and Santa Rosa Sound all Avinter, which are 

 taken now and then with hook and line. I have found them in abundance 

 in winter on the South Florida coast, where, owing to less variable con- 

 ditions of the water, their habits are decidedly different. The Hard-tail 

 is a most voracious fish, waging active war upon the schools of small fish. 

 Its movements are rapid, and sometimes in its eagerness it will jump high 

 out of the water. It has its enemies also, for I have seen whole schools 

 driven ashore by the sharks and porpoises ; a great many are destroyed in 

 this way. Hard-tails are caught for the market in seines." 



The occurrence of the Cuba Jurel, Caraiix latus, on our coast was first 

 announced by a drawing made by Mr. J. H. Richard of a fish taken in 

 South Carolina. Upon this drawing Holbrook founded his species, C 

 Richardii. Caraux latus occurs abundantly throughout the West Indies 

 and along the Gulf coast of the United States, and it is by no means im- 

 possil)le that stragglers should have found their way to Charleston. 

 According to Prof. Poey, this fish has been prohibited from sale in Cuba 

 from time immemorial, and with good reason, since many disastrous cases 

 of sickness have followed its use as food. This species occurs, according- 

 to Jordan, from the Gulf of California to Panama, and also in the East 

 Indies. 



The Round Robin, Decaptcrus Iinictatus, called at Pensacola, the 

 " Cigar-fish," occurs in the Bermudas, where it is an important food -fish ;. 

 it occurs also in the West Indies and along the coast of the United States 

 north as far as Woods Holl. 



A closely related species, Decaptcrus macarel/ns, is found also in the 



