208 AMERICAN FISHES 



ACANTHOPTERYGII. 



THE WEAK-FISH. 



WHEAT FISH ; Squeteaque, Checouts. Otolithus Regalis ; Cuvier. 



THE trivial name of this fine fish has never been very distinctly 

 explained, some ascribing the title " Weak " to the delicacy of the 

 mouth, which when hooked often tears away from the barb ; others to 

 the briefness of its resistance after being struck, though at first it 

 pulls strongly. 



Yet a third explanation is, that Weak is a corruption from " Wheat," 

 because it comes into season when the wheat is ripe ; this, however, is 

 not the fact, as it is an early spring fish, though taken through the 

 summer months abundantly in the waters of New York ; probably 

 both names, Wheat and Weak, are really corruptions from the Narra- 

 gansett appellation by which it was first known to the English settlers, 

 Squeteaque. 



Its geographical range is very wide, extending from New Orleans 

 and the mouth of the Mississippi, where it is styled " Trout," to the 

 estuary and Gulf of the St. Lawrence. It has also, it is said, been 

 taken at Martinique. 



It is less common in the New York waters than formerly, being 

 savagely hunted by its deadly enemy, the Blue Fish, Temnodon Sal- 

 tator, which has lamentably thinned its numbers. Still it exists in 

 sufficient numbers to give very exciting sport to the shoal salt-water 

 angler, and when quite fresh out of the water is a very exquisite fish, 

 its flavor greatly resembling that of the Trout, whence probably its 

 southern misnomer. When it has been taken three or four hours it 

 becomes flaccid, insipid, and in fact utterly worthless. 



Its color is bluish gray above, with irregular lines of transverse spots 

 on the back and sides ; the head is greenish blue, the irides are yellow, 

 the gill-covers and belly silvery and nacrous, the chin Salmon-colored, 

 dorsal and caudal fins brown, pectorals pale brownish yellow, ventrals 

 and anal orange. 



