REVIEW OF LOCAL FISHES 



65 



The young have a dark lengthwise stripe. This is one of our best food 

 fishes. The hardness of flesh makes it desirable for packing in ice, and 

 prevents rapid deterioration in hot weather. It is an excellent chowder- 

 fish and delicious boiled or broiled. It is the species most sought in 

 summer by the steamers which regularly take fishermen from New York 

 to the outside banks off the Long Island and New Jersey shores. A 

 five-pound Sea Bass is an unusually large one, but there are records for 

 twice that weight. Of occasional occurrence near New York are the Deep 

 Bigeye and the Wreckfish. The young of the former have been taken on 

 several occasions. It is a deep compressed fish with a back fin consisting 

 of ten strong spines and a short soft portion, with rather small rough 

 scales, and an even or slightly rounded tail fin. It has a rather large 

 oblique mouth, a very large eye and is deep red in color. A single 

 straggler of the Wreckfish has been taken near New York in August, a 

 species with small rough scales, large mouth, projecting lower jaw, spiny 

 and soft dorsal fins. It is peculiar in that the head is armed with rough 

 spinigerous crests. The Triple-tail is a rather large southern bass-like 

 fish which occasionally straggles northward to our shores in late 

 summer and autumn. It has a deep flattened body somewhat concave 



TRIPLE-TAIL 



in outline at the nape. Its lower jaw is projecting, its snout short, the 

 eye placed far forward. The somewhat pointed soft back fin and anal 

 fin project backward on either side of the slightly rounded tail fin. 



