FAMILY SCIENIDA — POGONIAS. 81 
ingly short; the second long, flat and stout; the remainder seven branched, the last subdi- 
vided. Caudal even, with scales extending over its base, and more particularly along its 
central rays. Air-bladder very large and oval, and with exceedingly thick coats; it has on 
its sides two pointed lobes, directed backward, and which are festooned on their margins. A 
large red gland within, and several distinct lacune. Spleen very long; cecal appendages six 
to eight. Vertebre twenty-four. 
Color. Brownish bronze ; rather lighter beneath, with a blackish spot behind the pectorals. 
Scales silvery on their external edges. There are two strongly marked varieties: one dark 
brown, the Black Drum of the fishermen; and the other the Red Drum, as these colors pre- 
dominate. 
Length, 24°0 - 48°0. 
Bintrays, Di9.1.22 3 P. 18; Vo69 A: 2.72 Claas. 
This is a large and deep fish; its length being usually about three feet, with a depth of 
from fifteen to eighteen inches. One of this size weighs about twenty-five pounds. I have 
heard of their weighing more than eighty pounds. They are gregarious, and are frequently 
taken in great numbers by the seine, during the summer, along the bays and inlets of Long 
Island. Their present geographical range appears to extend from Florida to New-York. I 
do not find them mentioned by Dr. Storer as occurring on the coast of Massachusetts. They 
are a coarse food, but the young are considered as a great delicacy. 
THE BANDED DRUM. 
PoGONIAS FASCIATUS, 
PLATE XIV. FIG. 40. 
Pogonias fasciatus. LACEPEDE, Hist. Nat. des Poissons. 
Mugil grunniens. Mutcuiit, Report in part, &c. p. 16. 
Labrus grunniens, Grunts. Ip. Lit. and Phil. Soc. N. Y. Vol. 1, p. 405, pl. 3, fig. 3. 
Le Pogonias & bandes. Cuv, et VAL. Hist. des Poiss. Vol. 5, p. 210, pl. 118. 
Characteristics. Dusky, with four or five blackish vertical bands extending down the sides. 
Length seven to ten inches. 
Description. Body compressed ; more along the back than beneath, and thus giving a 
triquetral figure to a transverse section of the body. Head sloping from the first dorsal to a 
short distance before the eyes, then more suddenly descending. Scales over the whole body 
and the head, except the anterior part of the snout and the lower jaw. They rise up along 
the base of the second dorsal, forming a sort of sheath: on the head they are small, wedge- 
shaped, ciliate ; on the body, large and orbicular ; the exposed surface small and ciliate, the 
concealed portion with radiating furrows and minute concentric stria. Lateral line concurrent 
with the back. Eyes large, with a prominent superciliary ridge. Nostrils double ; the 
posterior transversely oval. On the outer sides of the jaws, midway between the tip of the 
Fauna — Parr 4. 11 
