Notes and Queries 



205 



The Bone=Fish of Biscayne Bay, Florida. 



An earnest discussion has recently occurred 

 as to the proper classification of the so-called 

 bone or lady fish of Florida waters, particu- 

 larly the one taken in Biscayne Bay, Fla. This 

 perplexity is caused by the existence and gen' 

 eral use of the same common names — lady fish 

 or bony fish — for two widely diflierentiated fish. 

 I have passed manj'^ winters on the East and 

 West coasts of Florida, and have killed at 

 least one thousand of the so-called " bony " or 

 "lady fish," and in 1895, my companion, Mr. J. 

 L. Petrie, the artist, painted one of them in 

 oils from about twenty-five live specimens, and 

 it was not diiiicult for us to determine that the 

 fish painted was not the true bone-fish, but a 

 full brother to the tarpon, a big-eyed heri'ing 

 Elops saurus, a fish that has many of the 

 physical markings of the silver king and some 

 of its game qualities. 



The observant angler will, upon examina- 

 tion of the true bone or lady fish and the one 

 commonly called such, find that the first is 

 much stouter, has larger scales, with fifteen 

 rays in the dorsal and eight in the anal fin. 

 The common bony-fish, E. saurus, has twenty 

 ray^s in the dorsal and thirteen in the anal fin, 

 a difference in physical structure so prominent 

 that it will alone serve for the identification of 

 either fish. 



It is difficult to ascertain from the communi- 

 cations appearing from time to time in the 

 sportsmen's journals on the capture of the lady 

 or bone-fish, which of these two fishes the 

 writers are describing, but in most instances 

 they doubtless refer to the big-eyed herring, as 

 the frantic leaps of the fish are described in 

 glowing terms. The Hon. Matthew M. Quay 

 wiote me in 18S2 : 



" The bony-fish — I took two of them two 

 feet in length each, on the spinner at Juniper 

 and one at Punta Rassa. They resemble the 

 herring, except they are narrower in propor- 

 tion to their length. When hooked they are 

 as frantic in their leaps as the tarpon." 



Mr. Quay's fish were certainly big-eyed her- 

 rings, as his description shows, and the true 

 bone-fish, Albula viilpes, never leaps, but 

 fights fiercely by long surges. 



The true bone-fish, A. 7Julpes, is the only 

 representative of the Albulida family. Its 

 range is stated in the text books to be 

 from Cape Cod southward to the warm 

 seas, but it has occurred to me that the 

 confusion arising from a similarity of com- 



mon names for the two fishes described 

 may possibly have led to error in the classifi- 

 cation of the fish caught in Northern waters. 

 I have examined a specimen of the so-called 

 bony-fish, E. saurus, a big-eyed herring, 

 which was caught on a hook in Princess Bay, 

 New York, but in my personal and editorial 

 intercourse, covering more than a quarter of a 

 century, with New York salt-water fishermen 

 (over ten thousand of them go-a-fishing every 

 week of the season), I have never seen or 

 heard of the true bone-fish, A. vu/pes being 

 caught in our local waters or along the ad- 

 jacent sea coasts. But negative proof is no 

 proof at all, yet it seems to gather substance 

 when we consider that the true bone-fish has 

 never been reported as caught on hook and 

 line in any waters except those of Biscayne 

 Bay, Fla, , an unusual condition, when there are 

 thousands of eager, intelligent and observant 

 anglers annual!)- visiting both coasts of Florida, 

 and many more thousands indulging in their 

 favorite sport from the St. John's River, Fla., 

 to Cape Cod. Those who have captured this 

 fish in Biscayne Bay at once classed it as the 

 fiercest fighter, for its size, in southern seas, 

 and it must not be forgotten that the presence 

 of game qualities in a fish is an assurance that 

 its habits, habitat and physical peculiarities 

 will be studied by the angler who catches it,- 

 more particularly if the fish happens to be the 

 first of its species captured on his rod. 



Wm. C. Harris. 



The Finger Marks of St. Peter. 



Among the naturalists of the last century 

 opinions were varied as to which fish had the 

 prior right to the sacred markings of St. Peter's 

 thumb and finger. The honor was divided be- 

 tween the haddock and the dory. An old nat- 

 uralist writes in all seriousness as follows on 

 this mooted question : 



" It is rather difficult at this time (1770) to 

 determine on which part to decide the dispute, 

 for the doree likewise asserts an origin of its 

 marks of a similar nature but of a much earlier 

 date than the former (meaning the haddock). 

 St. Christopher, in wading through an arm of 

 the sea, caught a fish of this kind en passant., 

 and, as an eternal memorial of the fact, left 

 the impression on its sides to be transmitted to 

 all posterity." 



