Preface 



stands first ; indeed, there are [many visitors to those parts 

 who will fish for nothing else, thus losing many excellent 

 opportunities of sport on days that are too rough for them to 

 get out on the tarpon grounds. No attempt has been made at 

 anything in the nature of an exhaustive list of the sea fish 

 of Florida, which might easily have been gathered from one 

 or other of the American standard works on the subject, such 

 as the invaluable volumes by Jordan and Evermann, published 

 under the auspices of the United States National Museum. 

 Only 'fish that are likely to attract the notice of the angler 

 have been figured and briefly described, and this from the 

 sporting rather than from the natural-history point of view. 

 Nor have I devoted much space to the remaining fauna of 

 the coast and islands ; although a few conspicuous birds like 

 the cormorant and pelican, and an occasional reptile, such as 

 the turtle and alligator, the pursuit of which may pass an 

 otherwise wasted hour, have claimed a place in these notes. 



Much interest attaches to the realistic photographs with 

 which these .pages are illustrated. One of the first anglers in 

 this country to [inspect them was Mr. F. G. Aflalo, a fishing 

 enthusiast to whom I am indebted in no small measure for the 

 final arrangement of my notes, and he at once pronounced 

 them to be certainly the most remarkable in their own way 

 that had ever passed through his hands. They are all from 

 the natural (not mounted) fish, and the effects were obtained 

 by a simple, though careful, arrangement of pegs and sheeting. 



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