Centropristes 



a weight of 5 pounds, and is an excellent food-fish. Colour grayish 

 green^with obscure broad, dusky streaks and bars, which form reticu- 

 lations on the sides, which are often shaded and mottled with bluish 

 and greenish, but usually without distinct spots; a broad, dark, longi- 

 tudinal shade near axis of body; belly plain silvery gray. 



The o-enus Centropristes has the body robust, somewhat com- 

 pressed, covered with rather large ctenoid scales; mouth large, formed 

 ^s\n Srranus and Paralabrax, the canines small; preopercleserrae 

 he lower teeth somewhat antrorse; supraoccipital and parietal with 

 strongcrests extending forward to between the postfronta processes, 

 smoofh area on top of head very short and small; dorsal short, X, 1 1 ; 

 anaHll, 7; caudal usually 3-lobed or double concave; canines very 

 weak. 



This o-enus contains 3 species, one of them a very important food- 

 fish C striatns, variously known as the black sea-bass, blackfish, 

 hannahiU, black-will, and black-harry, is found along our Atlantic 

 coast from Cape Ann to northern Florida. It is common northward 

 and is a well-known food-fish. 



The sea-bass is usually a bottom fish, rather sluggish in its move- 

 ments and, like the tautog, is often seen lying among loose stones or 

 in cavities in the rocks. They feed upon crabs, shrimps, small fish, and 

 squids. They are voracious feeders, taking the hook freely, and as 

 their mouths are tough, they are not easily lost. 



Their spawning-time is probably in the summer, as the fish are 

 full of spawn in the spring, and young fish i to 2 inches long are com- 

 mon in the eel-grass along the shores of southern New England in 



^""'^he' sea-bass grows to a weight of 4 or s pounds, though this is 

 unusual; they average less than 2 pounds. , : a ,v,, 



As a food-fish this species holds a high rank. The flesh is flaky 

 and sweet, and keeps well, a feature which makes it a good shipper. 



Colour, dusky-brown or black, more or less mottled and with 

 pale longitudinal streaks; dorsal with several series of elongate whitish 

 spots forming oblique light stripes; other fins dusky, mottled; young 

 with a black longitudinal band, which later breaks up, forming dark 

 cross-shades ; a large black spot on last dorsal spines. 



The tally-wag of the Gulf of Mexico is a distinct species of sea- 

 bass, C ocyurus, occurring in rather deep water, chiefly on the Snap- 

 per Banks. 



397 



