FISHES OF NEW YORK 589^ 



usually no oblique dark streaks along rows of scales above; fins 

 dusky. 



Dr Mitchill describes the drum under the names, black drum 

 and red drum. The black drum which he described weighed 34 

 pounds. He had a specimen of 80 pounds, and states that he was 

 credibly informed of one that weighed 101 pounds. The species, 

 according to Dr Mitchill, was taken abundantly during the sum- 

 mer with line and net. The name drum, he says, is derived from 

 the drumming noise made by the fish immediately after being 

 taken out of water. " He swims in numerous shoals in the shal- 

 low bays on the south side of Long Island, where fishermen dur- 

 ing the warm season can find them almost like a flock of sheep; 

 is a dull sort of fish." The red drum he considered merely a 

 variety of the black drum. Dr De Kay says of the species^ which 

 he calls the big drum : " They are gregarious, and frequently 

 taken in great numbers by the seine during the summer along the 

 bays and inlets of Long Island." De Kay adopted a different 

 specific name for the young of this species, and called it the 

 banded drum. Other names for this stage given by De Kay are: 

 grunter, grunts, young drum and young sheepshead. He saw 

 the young in September, and states that it is found in New York 

 waters also in October and November. The adults, according to 

 De Kay, are a coarse food, but the young are considered a great 

 delicacy. 



The drum is occasionally taken on our coast as far north as 

 Cape Cod; southward it extends to the Gulf of Mexico. 



The drum is an occasional summer visitor in Gravesend bay. 

 In the fall of 1896, 14 young individuals, 8 inches long, were 

 brought from there alive to the aquarium, and lived till February 

 10, 1897, when the low temperature of the water (38°) killed them. 

 In the fall of 1897 none were seen in the bay. 



In the vicinity of Woods Hole Mass. the drum is very rare. 

 Dr Smith records the first one as having been taken May 7, 

 1874, and it has been observed only three or four times since. 

 The recent specimens have been caught in traps at Quisset 

 Harbor, in the latter part of September or early in October p; 



