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FISHERY BULLETIN OF THE FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



and they have been reported from Eastport. 64 

 But we suspect that porgies in St. Marys Bay, 

 Nova Scotia, reported to Knight 86 were some 

 other fish. 



Probably such scup as spread north of Cape Cod 

 in favorable summers withdraw southward again 

 (if they survive) in autumn to the same offshore 

 wintering grounds to which the much more numer- 

 ous scup repair from the southern shores of Massa- 

 chusetts. The fact that small scup, probably 

 devoured on their way offshore, have been found 

 in autumn in cod stomachs on Nantucket Shoals, 

 where scup certainly are not common in summer, 

 points in this direction. There is no reason to 

 believe that any of these fish winter in the deep 

 basin of the Gulf of Maine. 



Importance. — Scup are never plentiful enough 

 anywhere north of the elbow of Cape Cod to be of 

 importance, whether commercially or to the angler. 

 But this is an important food fish to the westward 

 and southward where it is plentiful. Landings 

 ran, for example, between about 3,300,000 pounds 

 and 5,600,000 from the southern coast of New 

 England and between about 3,300,000 and4,300,000 

 pounds from New York, for the years 1945-47. 

 The "porgy", as it is commonly called along that 

 part of the coast, is also a favorite with anglers, for 



•* A specimen taken many years ago recorded by Kendall (Occ. Pap. 

 Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. 7, No. 8, 1908, p. 103). 

 - Descript. Cat. Fishes Nova Scotia 1866, p. 13. 



it bites greedily and is a good pan fish. Great 

 numbers of them are caught on hook and line for 

 home consumption. 



Sheepshead Archosargus probatocephalus 

 baum) 1792 



Jordan and Evermann, 1896-1900, p. 1361. 



(Wal- 



Description. — The sheepshead resembles the 

 scup so closely in its general organization that the 

 family relations between the two are obvious. Like 

 the scup it is deep bodied and much flattened side- 

 wise, with similar profile. It has one long dorsal 

 fin, scuplike in outline, the anterior two-thirds of 

 which is spiny (11 or 12 spines) and the posterior 

 one-third is soft (11 to 13 rays). Its anal fin (3 

 spines and 10 or 11 rays) is about as long as the 

 soft portion of its dorsal, under which it stands, 

 and both the dorsal fin and the anal can be de- 

 pressed in a deep groove. The pectorals are long 

 and pointed; the ventrals are situated a little be- 

 hind the latter; the scales are large; and the eyes 

 are located high on the sides of the head; in all of 

 which the sheepshead agrees with the scup. It is 

 readily recognized, however, by the fact that its cau- 

 dal fin is not so deeply emarginate as that of the scup, 

 and has rounded corners instead of pointed ones, 

 while its dorsal spines are alternately stout and 

 slender; its second anal spine is much stouter than 



Figure 216. — Sheepshead (Archosargus probatocephalus), North Carolina. From Goode. Drawing by H. L. Todd. 



