278 American Fisheries Society 



The fresh water silverside, Menidia bcryllina, is the 

 delicious little fish commonly sold in bulk in the New York 

 market as "whitebait/' and eaten head and all, fried. It is 

 very abundant in certain clear, fresh head waters of 

 Moriches Bay, L. I., and is netted extensively for the 

 market. The salt water silverside, Menidia notata, resem- 

 bling it so much in appearance as to be distinguished with 

 difficulty, abounds in the salt and brackish waters adjoining. 

 It grows to a larger size and is edible, but much poorer than 

 the other, as it is less meaty, more bony, and sometimes 

 tastes muddy. It is more difficult to obtain as the 

 schools are not as dense, and the fish in them are less uni- 

 form in size. 



Two delicious little salt-water fishes which would make 

 as good "white bait" as the fresh water silverside, are the 

 striped and Mitchill's anchovies, Stolephorus brownii and 

 j n it chilli. Both of these occur near New York, though the 

 writer has eaten them only in Florida. He has there eaten 

 the striped anchovy as large as a small smelt, and an unre- 

 lated slender fish, the halfbeak, Hyporamphus unifasciatus, 

 somewhat larger. The two last mentioned were eaten by 

 several persons and pronounced excellent. 



In the winter of 1909-1910, while engaged in collecting- 

 fishes for the American Museum of Natural History in 

 Florida, we caught many species in the seine daily, and from 

 time to time would pick out one or two of the best for the 

 table. Notwithstanding its somewhat unprepossessing ap- 

 pearance, the snook, Centropomus undcciinalis, weighing 

 five or ten pounds, was found to be a food fish of the very 

 first rank. Despite its northern reputation, the sheepshead, 

 Archosargus probatoccphalus, taken at the same time in 

 the same waters, was pronounced much inferior by several 

 persons ; in fact it was rather tough and tasteless and we only 

 ate it once or twice. 



The sundial, Lophopsetta maculata, common near New 

 York, is a small flounder not utilized for food. It is flat and 

 thin and its flesh is translucent. Nevertheless a young speci- 



