FISH AND FLSHING IN AMERICA. 



J^Y WM. C. HARRIS. 



(Continued from page 189.) 



An earnest discussion has recently 

 taken place among anglers as to the 

 proper classification of the so-called 

 bonefish or ladyfish, particularly the 

 one taken, most frequently, in Biscayne 

 Bay, Florida. This perplexity is caused, 

 in part, by the existence and general 

 use of the same common or popular 

 name for two widely differentiated fish. 



I have passed many winters in Flori- 

 da, and have, doubtless, caught more 

 than a thousand of the so-called "lady- 

 fish or bonefish," and in 1895 ^^7 com- 

 panion, Mr. J. L. Petrie, the artist, 

 painted a portrait of one, in oils, before 

 its life-colors had faded, on examination 

 of which it was plain to see that it was 

 not the true bonefish, Allnila viilpcs, 

 although so-called on both coasts of 

 Florida. It was a full brother of the 

 tarpon — a big-eyed herring, Elops saii- 

 rus, a fish that has many of the physical 

 markings of the silver king, and some 

 of its game qualities when restrained 

 by the rod. That the angler may, on 

 sight, distinguish one from the other, 

 illustrations of both are given. Upon 

 examination of a captured fish, it will 

 be seen that the true bonefish, A. vulpcs, 

 has fifteen rays in the dorsal fin and 

 eight in the anal, and the ladyfish, or 

 more properly the big-eyed herring, 

 E. saurus, has twenty rays in the dorsal 

 and thirteen in the anal fin. The first- 

 named fish is much stouter in build, 

 has large scales and is brilliantly silvery 

 in color, shading into olive on the back 

 with faint streaks along the rows of 

 scales. The big-eyed herring has much 

 smaller scales, is also of a bright, sil- 



very coloration, but in lieu of the 

 olivaceous shading above the lateral 

 line and on the back, which occurs in 

 the true bonefish, there is a distinct but 

 soft bluish green coloration extending 

 from the shoulder to the fleshy part of 

 the tail. It is difficult to ascertain from 

 the articles appearing from time to time 

 in the sportsman's journals, on the cap- 

 ture of the ladyfish or bonefish, 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 de- 

 scribed in glowing terms. The Hon. 

 Matthew S. Quay wrote me in 1882: 



"The bony-fish — I took two of them, 

 two feet in length each, on a spinner at 

 Juniper and one at Punta Rassa. They 

 resemble the herring, except they are 

 narrower in proportion to their length. 

 When hooked, they are as frantic in 

 their leaps as the tarpon." 



These fish were certainly the big- 

 eyed herring, E. sauriis. The true bone- 

 fish does not leap from the water when 

 under the restraint of the line. 



The bonefish or ladyfish, Albiila 

 viilpes — generic name from the Latin, 

 "white;" the specific, also Latin, mean- 

 ing "fox" — is classed in the order, 

 Isospoiidyli — from two Greek words sig- 

 nifying "equal," "vertebra." In this 

 order we find many other fishes that 

 are taken on hook and line — the salmons, 

 trouts, graylings, mooneyes, tarpons, 

 herrings, shad, smelt, whitefishes (cis- 

 co), pike, pickerel and muscalonge. 

 The fishes of this order are chara6ter- 

 ized by the soft rays in their fins; 



