342 Bass, Pike, and Perch 



nies and arches swim the most beautiful creations 

 of the finny tribe, whose capture is at once a 

 joy and a dehght. 



THE RED SNAPPER 



{Lutianus aya) 



The red snapper was named aya by Bloch, in 

 1790, that being the Portuguese name for it in 

 Brazil, according to Marcgrave. It was described 

 by Goode and Bean as a new species, in 1878, and 

 named blackfordi, in honor of Eugene G. Black- 

 ford, of New York, in consideration of his eminent 

 services and interest in fishculture. The red 

 snapper, while not a game-fish, is one of the best 

 known of Florida fishes, inasmuch as it is shipped 

 all over the country as a good dinner fish, its 

 fine, firm flesh bearing transportation well. It is 

 especially abundant in the Gulf of Mexico, in 

 water from ten to fifty fathoms deep, on the 

 " snapper banks," from ten to fifty miles offshore, 

 and thence south to Brazil, occasionally straying 

 north on the Atlantic coast to Long Island. 



The depth of its body is a little more than a 

 third of its length, being rather deep and com- 

 pressed, the back elevated and regularly arched 

 from the eye to the tail. The head is large, its 



