/» REPORT OF COMMISSIONERS OF INLAND FISHERIES. 



Food: Like that of the tautog. Browses around wharves, piles, and similar 

 places, eating fishes, tunicates^ hydroids, annelids, small Crustacea, 

 univalve molluscs; an important scavenger of harbors, feeding on all 

 kinds of dead animal matter. 



Size: Ten inches. Young 1 inch long appear August 1. (Smith, loc. cit.) 



136. Tautoga onitis (Linnaeus). Tautog; Blackfish. 



Geog. Dist. : Atlantic coast. New Brunswick to Charleston. 



Season in R. I.: Abundant from May to November, but taken in the 

 greatest numbers from the middle of May till the middle of June. In 

 winter they seek deeper water and probably hibernate among the rocks. 

 A few have been taken in Rhode Island in midwinter with lines and in 

 lobster pots. (Goode.) There are instances of their death in great 

 numbers during very cold winters. In February, 1857, after a very cold 

 season, hundreds of tons of tautog drifted on the shores of Block Island; 

 in 1841 the same thing occurred on the southern shores of Massachusetts 

 and Rhode Island. (Goode.) In 1900 the first specimen taken at Paw- 

 tuxet was on April 26. 



Habitat: Shallow water on exposed shores about rocks and seaweed. 



Reproduction: Spawns from May through July, probably in eelgrass. The 

 young appear about August 1. 



Food: Hard-shelled molluscs and Crustacea. 



Size: The largest one on record was taken at New York, July 1876, and 

 measured 865 inches. 



EPHIPPID^. The Angel-Fishes. 



127. Chaetodipterus faber (Broussonet) . Spadefish; Angel-fish; Moon-fish. 

 Geog. Dist.: Cape Cod to Rio Janeiro, very abundant on our south Atlantic 



coast. 

 Season in R. L: Very rare. One specimen, 17 inches long, is in possession 



of the Commission, taken in Narragansett Bay, date uncertain. 

 Food: Shrimp, annelids, foramenifera, diatoms. 



CH^TODONTID.^. The Butterfly Fishes. 



128. Chaetodon ocellatus (Bloch). Parche. 



Geog. Dist.: Common at West Indies, the young straying northward to 

 New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Cape Cod. 



