SARGUS OVIS. 55 



General Remarks. Schoepff, in his Memoir on the Fishes of New York, so 

 long ago as 1778, gave a good description of our animal, in which he says, " It is 

 called Sheepshead " ; and he further observes, " Common and well known as this 

 fish is, in most regions of America, it seems not yet to have been described." If 

 it appeared to Schoepff remarkable that no one had given a description of the 

 Sheepshead, it is still more so to us, that a fish so large, one so sought after for the 

 table, and sold almost daily in our markets, should never have been noticed by 

 ichthyologists, from that time to 1817, when Dr. Mitchill gave a good description 

 of it from recent specimens, and accompanied it with a tolerable figure. 



Habits. The Sheepshead appears in the neighbourhood of Charleston in April, 

 and continues until November, though farther south it doubtless remains the whole 

 year, as it has been taken in Port Royal Sound as early as January. It enters 

 shallow inlets and mouths of rivers, but never leaves the salt for fresh water ; it 

 prefers rocky bottoms or sheltered places for its residence ; the wreck of some old 

 vessel is always "a favorite resort, either from the protection it afi"ords, or because 

 barnacles and other shells, the natural food of the animal, soon collect about it. 

 Major Leconte informs me that these fish are exceedingly numerous along the in- 

 lets of Southern Florida, where the roots of the mangrove-trees are broadly ex- 

 tended into the salt water, and covered Avith barnacles. Mr. Elliott,* in his charm- 

 ing little work, which I advise all sportsmen to read, observes that " they were 

 formerly taken in considerable numbers among our various inlets, into which largo 

 trees had fallen, to which the barnacles soon became attached ; but as the lands 

 have been cleared for the cultivation of sea-island cotton, the trees have disap- 

 peared, and with them the fish ; and it has been found necessary to renew their 

 feeding grounds by artificial means." Thus, " logs of oak or pine are formed into 

 a sort of hut without a roof, five or six feet high ; it is floored, and then floated to 

 the place desired, and sunk in eight feet water, by casting stones or live oak tim- 

 ber within ; as soon as the barnacles are formed, which will happen in a few 

 weeks, the fish will begin to resort to the ground." It is sometimes necessary to 

 protect the fish from their great enemies. Porpoises and Sharks, and this is done 



* Carolina Sports, by Land and Water, by the Hon. William Elliott, of Beaufort, S. C. 



