215 



ACANTHOPTERYGII. SPARIDjE. 



THE SHEEP'S-HEAD. 



Sargus Ovis ; Auctoriun. 



This fine and delicate fish must on no account be confounded with 

 the fresh-water Corvince, two of which pass by the same synonyme in 

 the vernacular, and are peculiar to the great lakes. This is, on the 

 contrary, a purely salt-water species, never ascending rivers, although 

 it enters all the shallow bays on the coast, so far as Cape Cod. It is 

 a southern fish in its natural state, although during the heat of the 

 summer it wanders to the northward, where it is taken along the shores 

 from June to October. Its southern limit is the Mississippi, and the 

 coasts of Florida and the Carolinas are its breeding-grounds. 



As a delicacy, it holds " the same rank with American gastrono- 

 mers," says Dr. DeKay, " that the Turbot holds in Europe. I have 

 frequently eaten of both, under equally favorable circumstances, that 

 is to say, within an hour after being taken out of the water, and can 

 a.ssert that the Sheep's-Head is the more delicate and savory fish. The 

 Turbot, I may here state — though I have heard the contrary frequently 

 asserted — does not occur on the shores of America." 



I have quoted the above remarks for two reasons, first because I 

 desire to register my assertion as against Dr. DeKay's, although such 

 things are, after all, merely matters of opinion, that the Sheep's-Head, 

 though a delicious fish, is not more delicate — savory neither of them 

 are — than the Turbot, and that it is immeasurably inferior to it in 

 lacking what constitutes the Turbot's chief excellence, the admirable 

 gelatinous fins, which have been famous the world over from the time 

 of Domitian and Heliogabalus, arch epicures of old, to the palmy 

 days of Ude and Carenne. 



Secondly, I beg leave to state positively, that although t/ie Turbot of 

 T!urope does not exist on the shores of America, a Turbot, and a very 

 admirable fish too, as far superior to the Halibut as one fish can well 

 be to another, does exist, and is constantly taken on the shores of Mas- 



