48 Big Game Fishes 



at Key West and Porto Rico. It spawns in 

 July and August and it is said to school ; but I 

 have never seen such propinquity in the sense 

 of schooling mullets, jacks, or other tropical 

 schooling fish. Snappers, in my observations, 

 were always seen together; that is, where there 

 was one, ten or fifteen would be observed in the 

 immediate vicinity, perhaps poising, or moving 

 slowly about, never conveying the impression that 

 there was a school rather a community, as they 

 have the home instinct strongly developed, and, 

 like all snappers, live in certain localities, remain- 

 ing there during the day, but wandering abroad 

 at night, like many tropical fishes, to feed in the 

 shallow lagoons or flats, where they were never 

 found during the day. 



The habit of night feeding in shallow water 

 was very marked at Garden Key, so much so that 

 when it was necessary to catch rare fishes we 

 invariably hauled the seine in the lagoon between 

 ten and twelve o'clock at night, always taking 

 many forms which were never seen there at other 

 times. There was one drawback large sharks 

 and sting rays were particularly addicted to night 

 strolling, and frequently became entangled in the 

 nets. 



