SOFT-RAYED BONY FISHES 95 



lakes such as Lake Nicaragua in Central America. In tropical 

 American waters it occurs at almost any time of the year, but 

 only extends to its northern and southern limits in the warmer 

 months. It is very sensitive to sudden changes of tempera- 

 ture, and during a cold wave which invaded Florida in 1905 

 some 40 or 50 Tarpon were found so benumbed with cold 

 that they could easily be harpooned from boats. 



As might be expected from its beautifully streamlined 

 form and powerful forked tail, the Tarpon is an active, speedy 

 fish, capable of pursuing shoals of smaller fishes with untiring 

 energy and tremendous vigour. It will follow a shoal of 

 mullet, its favourite food, for days on end, chasing them into 

 estuaries and pursuing them up the rivers. Often it will leap 

 clear of the water, and, with its gill-covers spread out and its 

 blood-red gills plainly visible, the " silver king " provides an 

 inspiring spectacle. It has been suggested that the Tarpon 

 will leap to avoid a shark or to rid itself of a sucking-fish, 

 but Dr. Gill is of the opinion that the leaps, " like those of 

 the salmon, seem to be mostly in sportive manifestation of 

 its intense vitality and not for food or entirely from fear ". 



Mr. Babcock has recently described lung-like bands of 

 tissue in the air-bladder of the Tarpon, and concludes that 

 this fish breathes atmospheric air on. occasions. 



Opinions differ as to the extent of the jumps, but a clean 

 vertical leap of about 8 to 10 feet would seem to be the 

 Tarpon's limit. Horizontal leaps of 20 feet or more have 

 been observed by reliable witnesses. The initial power for 

 the jump is provided by an extra strong stroke of the tail, 

 made just before the fish leaves the water. While in the air 

 the body is held in a curve, and the fish naturally falls towards 

 the concave side. Mr. Babcock, in his interesting little book, 

 ' The Tarpon ', tells us that " it has been known to jump 

 upon a man sitting in a chair on the deck of a steamboat. 

 One knocked a negro guide out of a boat . . . the man 

 was stunned and drowned. In Galveston Bay a tarpon 

 leaped and broke a boatman's neck." One authority has 

 suggested that the long filamentous ray at the end of the 

 dorsal fin plays an important part in determining the course 

 of a leap, but this is denied by others. 



The breeding habits of the Tarpon have long been a matter 



