291 FISHES 



It is quite impossible to give statistics as to the number and value of the 

 fishes taken in the Bahamas. No record is kept of fishes sold in the markets. 

 Low prices prevail and in the absence of the best grades of beef, mutton and 

 the like, large quantities of fishes are annually consumed. At the time of our 

 visit, June 16 to July 20, 1903, the supply of fish in the wells of the boats in 

 Nassau harbor seemed to be ample and in excess of the demand. The follow- 

 ing kinds are esteemed as food: snapper, mutton-fish, groupers, pompano, 

 grunts, jacks, runners, porgies, angel-fish, pork-fish, hog-fish, tangs, turbot 

 and shell-fish. Those considered of fair quality are: bonito, king-fish, shad 

 (Gerres), goat-fish, mullet, goggle-eye, squirrel-fish, hound-fish, flying-fish, 

 amber-fish or amber jack, etc. 



Of the one hundred and eighty-three species here enumerated fully forty- 

 two are of primary importance as food-fishes, while twenty-four may be re- 

 garded as of secondary importance. About ten other species are sometimes 

 eaten, but little esteemed, and a few are often unfit for human consumption, be- 

 ing poisonous. The Barracuda, though eaten at times, will often cause great 

 discomfort to those partaking of its flesh. In speaking of the morays Catesby 

 says: 1 "The inhabitants of the Bahama Islands will eat only the green sort, 

 rejecting those which are black as poisonous." He also refers to the unicorn- 

 fish (Alutera scripta) as being poisonous, and of the rock-fish (Perca marina 

 venenosa punctata) says: 2 ''This fish lias a worst character for its poisonous 

 quality of any other among the Bahama Islands." 



As will readily be seen by the illustrations (Plates LII-LXI) from draw- 

 ings by Mr. A. H. Baldwin, the fishes of the Bahamas are not only useful for 

 food, but also as an attraction to the many visitors to the Islands. Their 

 beauty in life, as they swim to and fro among the sea fans and corals, is 

 indescribable, and one never tires looking through the water bucket with glass 

 bottom, or better still, through the floor of a glass-bottom boat. The " Sea 

 Gardens " of Nassau harbor are famous for their beauty, but they are meager 

 in attraction to some of the bottoms observed farther south. The rock-beauties, 

 angel-fishes, turbot, tang, parrot-fishes, pork-fish, hog-fish, cock-eye pilot, and 

 many others are plainly seen in the clear water and as they flash their beautiful 

 colors fill the observer with wonder and admiration. 3 



1 The Natural History of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahama Islands, etc., 

 Vol. II, 1743. 



-hoc. cit. 



3 Popular accounts of the fishes of the Bahamas are to be found in American 

 Fishes, Goode, and in American Food and Game Fishes, Jordan and Evermann. 



