232 Big Game Fishes 



I believe that they go south or seek the warmer 

 waters of the Gulf." 



As to the spawning habits of the tarpon almost 

 nothing is known, and the above information was 

 in reply to some questions I propounded, hoping 

 to obtain some definite facts. I watched the 

 hauling of the seine several years at the Tortugas 

 group, but never saw a young tarpon taken, so 

 assume that it does not breed at this point. 

 Mr. Barton W. Evermann found in his investiga- 

 tions among the fishes of Porto Rico, reported to 

 the United States Fish Commission, that the fish 

 doubtless made this region a spawning-ground. 

 He says : " Common about Porto Rico, where it 

 evidently breeds, as numerous immature individ- 

 uals were taken at Hucares and Fajardo. 



" The four examples are from Hucares, from 

 7.5 to 11.5 inches long, and were seined in a 

 small, brackish pool of dark-colored water, not 

 over 5 feet deep, in the corner of a mangrove 

 swamp, and at that time (February) entirely 

 separated from the ocean by a narrow strip of 

 land scarcely 25 feet wide. The thirteen others 

 are nearly all very young, of 2.25 to 3.25 inches, 

 collected at Fajardo. No large individuals are 



seen." 



