264. FAMILY OF THE PERCID^. 



PERCIDiE. 



THE SEA BASS. 



BLACK SEA BASS. 



Centropi'ktes Nigricans — Cuvier. 



This is an excellent fisli^ and a very general favourite on tlie 

 table. It is with us a summer fish of passage, in the Northern 

 States I mean, appearing on the coasts of New York during the 

 months of May, June, and July, in which it is frequent in the 

 markets, and readily taken with the baited hook. 



Its geographical range is very wide, extending from the coasts 

 of Florida to Cape Cod, on the shores of Massachusetts ; abun- 

 dant in the vicinity of Martha's Vineyard, it is rare in Boston 

 Bay. Properly a southern species, though it visits the waters 

 of the Eastern States in summer, it invariably returns to the 

 eastward in autumn. 



With the wonted stupid perversity of their order, the fisher- 

 men of our coasts have confounded it, by means of absurd 

 misnomers, with two entirely different species, the Blue Fish 

 {Temnodon Saltator), and the Black Fish or Tautog [Tautoga 

 Americana), calling it commonly by both these appellations. 



The colour of the Sea Bass is a general blue-black, sometimes 



