29 



fished out, and one of our most important sources of food supply will 

 be dried up. The peculiar mode of reproduction of these fishes not 

 only render them of considerable scientific interest, but the young, 

 hatched perfectly formed, and able to take care of themselves from 

 the moment of their exclusion from the oviduct, have many more 

 chances in the struggle for life than those of ordinary fishes; and 

 with a little care on our part it is probable that an abundant supply 

 could be maintained. We take the ova of the shad and the salmon, 

 and by careful watching and tending hatch the young, which we 

 then put into the rivers to take their chance; but in this tribe of 

 fishes nature does all this work for us, and all we have to do is to let 

 the young fish get away safely, as far as we are concerned. 



I have mentioned by name eleven species, but these are not all. 

 About eighteen kinds are known, one of them a native of Japan, the 

 others all from this coast; one, Hysterocarpus traskii, Gibbons, is 

 found in the fresh waters of our State, but all the others are marine. 



The Embiotocidffi are a difficult family to study, not only because 

 of the anatomical peculiarities which need fuller investigation, but 

 on account of the confusion into which the nomenclature has fallen. 

 Various species were, about 1854, described almost simultaneously by 

 Agassiz and by Dr. W. P. Gibbons, of Alameda. Shortly after, 

 Girard, in the Pacific Railroad Report, described several species, 

 most of them identical with those described by the two former 

 naturalists. Each of these writers gave a different name to the same 

 species; this was unavoidable in the case of the first two naturalists. 

 But Girard, coming after the others, chose also to re-describe them 

 giving at the end of his work on the family a list of Dr. Gibbons' 

 species which he states he could not recognize. He who undertakes 

 to write scientifically upon this group has now to disentangle the 

 maze of synonymy, and also to determine which of the numerous 

 genera have characters which entitle them to recognition, and all 

 this means a great deal of hard and unattractive work. 



These fishes are commonly known as "perch," although some of 

 the species have been honored wuth distinctive titles. 



Embiotoca jacksoni, Agassiz, the Pogy or Black Basse — The pogy, 

 black basse, or black perch, as il is variously called, on account of 

 a supposed resemblance to fishes not very nearly related, is perhaps 

 the best known of the family. At the same time it is one of the 

 most difficult to distinguish, on account of the difference of color 

 between the male and female, and between the young and the adult. 

 Thus the Embiotoca cassidii and Embiotoca webbii of Girard are only 

 partially grown black perch. The female is of a deep dark purplish- 

 brown, with the vertical fins and ventrals of a bluer purple; but the 

 male is much lighter in tint. The young have transverse bands 

 across the body, a peculiarity which is common to the young of the 

 whole family, but persists in the adults of some species. These 

 bands are in all cases darker than the ground tint. Some individu- 

 als have the vertical fins decidedly violet. There are four rows of 

 scales upon the cheek. Girard gives the number of young in the two 

 ovaries as about sixty. This species is tolerably common in the Bay 

 of San Francisco, and abounds in Tomales Bay; and is brought to 

 market more or less abundantly throughout the year. It is one of 

 the largest of the family, attaining a length of fourteen or fifteen 

 inches, and a weight of from three to four pounds. 



Tseniotoca lateralis, Agassiz, Blue-banded Perch — By the peculiarity 



