320 Bass, Pike, and Perch 



didcs, and may be distinguished by their very 

 wide mouths, which open back to the gill-cover. 

 The species all look very much alike ; the most 

 common ones are the banded anchovy {Stole- 

 phorus perfasciatiis), with narrow silvery longi- 

 tudinal band, and from two to three inches long ; 

 the big anchovy {StokpJionis brownii), which is 

 deeper and grows larger, from four to six inches 

 in length; these two species are mostly con- 

 fined to the south and west coasts. Another 

 species, also abundant on the east coast, is the 

 silver anchovy {Stolephorus mitchilli\ which is 

 more silvery or translucent in appearance than 

 the others, with yellowish fins and dotted body. 



There are a number of crabs that are excellent 

 baits, as the hermit crab {Eupagurus), which 

 lives in the cast-off shells of univalve mollusks ; 

 fiddler crab {Gelasimus), which abounds in myr- 

 iads on the inside shores of the bays ; the spider 

 crab [Libinia), which is quite common in shallow 

 water, sometimes covered with bits of weeds, 

 shells, etc. ; the common crab {Cancer) ; the lady 

 crab {Platyoiiichus\ beautifully spotted ; the stone 

 crab {Menippe), quite a large crab, with very 

 large claws; the mud crab (Pajiopeus\ a small 

 crab and a very good bait. There are a number 



