124 REPORT OF COMMISSIONERS OF INLAND FISHERIES. 



LOBOTID^. The Triple-Tails. 



125. Lobotes surinamensis (Bloch). Triple-tail; Flasher. 



Geog. Dist. : All warm seas, Cape Cod to Panama. Recorded from 

 Woods Hole (Baird, 1873; Smith, 1898), Menemsha Bight (Smith, 

 1898). 



Habitat: A bottom-fish of sluggish habits. 



Season in R. I.: The rarity of this species is shown by the fact that, 

 according to the Report of U. S. Fish Commission, 1901, only six 

 specimens had been recorded in northern waters in twenty years. 

 Of late years, however, in Narragansett Bay, one or two specimens are 

 usually reported each season. Specimen taken off Pine Hill, 1898. 

 September 10, 1901, a specimen weighing six pounds, and 22 inches 

 long was caught in a trap off Prudence Island. A specimen 18 inches 

 long, was taken in a trap August 20, 1905, near Saunderstown. An- 

 other was reported by a fisherman in the upper part of Narragansett 

 Bay about two weeks later. In 1906 a specimen was taken in a trap 

 off Sauga Point, near Wickford. A specimen was taken in the Quonset 

 fish-trap on August 1, 1908. 



Reproduction: Probably spawns in brackish water in the spring, as 

 young three inches long were found in August in the eel-grass in 

 Tuckahoe River, New Jersey (Goode). 



Food: Small fishes, mussels, and shrimp. 



Size: Three feet. 



PRIACANTHID^. The Catalufas. 



126. Priacanthus arenatus (Cuvier and Valenciennes). 



Geog. Dist.: Tropical Atlantic, south to Brazil; occasionally north- 

 ward in the Gulf Stream to Newport and Woods Hole. Reported 

 from Woods Hole and Quisset Harbor (Smith, 1898). 



Season in R. I.: Small specimens taken at Newport are in U. S. National 

 Museum (Proc. Acad., Philadelphia, 1889, 159). 



127. Pseudopriaeanthus altus (Gill). Big-eye. 



Geog. Dist.: West Indies, in rather deep water, north to Marblehead. 



Reported from Marblehead Beach (Storer, 1867), Woods Hole, Achus- 



net River, New Bedford. (Smith, 1898). 

 Season in R. I.: Very rare. A few have been taken at Woods Hole and 



vicinity. The type of this species described by Gill was a very young 



specimen taken in Narragansett Bay, near Conanicut Ferry, in Sep- 



