336 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



pounds, making in the aggregate 202 tons 250 pounds." The name drum- 

 fish alludes to the drumming sound which they make at the spawning 

 season. How they do it is not certainly known. Some attribute it to the 

 grinding action of the pharyngeal bones, while others think it is produced 

 by the passage of air from one part of the air-bladder to the other. Several 

 other fishes have the same power ; among them is the fresh-water drum, 

 or, to take another expressive name, the thunder-pumper of the Great 

 Lakes and the Mississippi basin. The salt-water drum must not be dis- 

 missed without alluding to the fact that its scales are used in making the 



Fig. 31i. — Drum-fish (Poyonias chromis) . 



fish-scale jewelry, which a few years ago was so extensively manufactured 

 in Florida. 



The scup, scuppaug, or porgy, is a valuable food fish, occurring in the 

 summer on the whole coast south of Cape Cod. It, however, is far excelled 

 by the sheepshead of the same waters, which receives its name from the 

 shape of the head, and also from the way in which it browses on the bar- 

 nacles and shell-fish. It is one of the choicest of food fishes, and is chiefly 

 caught with a hook. Somewhat near it in the system of classification 

 comes the celebrated red grouper of the south, the monstrous Jew-fish. 

 which may weigh four or five hundred pounds, and the striped bass, or 

 rock-fish, which is so highly esteemed for the table. The common yellow 

 perch of fresh water is an allied species. 



