The Sheepshead 325 



I have fished for sheepshead alongshore from 

 Long Island to the Chesapeake, off the Georgia 

 coast at Marion Island, and far out on the Florida 

 reef, and have always found it a gamy fish. 



It belongs to the family Sparidce, to the sub- 

 genus Archosargus, and is known to science as 

 Archosargus probatocephalus (Walbaum). Its 

 head is large and high, the body deep, with 

 a long dorsal fin ; the tail forked but not deeply, 

 a powerful organ. The mouth is large and 

 provided with a curious array of teeth, those 

 in front being conical or incisorial, for tearing or 

 biting. Back of these are others, in two or 

 three rows, which are crushers or grinders. 

 These are suggestive of the habits of the sheeps- 

 head, which is equipped by nature to live upon 

 shells and crustaceans, and wherever found it 

 feeds upon young oysters, barnacles, cockles, and 

 crabs of various kinds. With the front teeth it 

 wrenches shells from rocks or piers, passes them 

 to the grinders, where they are crushed as though 

 passing through a rock breaker. In color the 

 sheepshead is gray, with six or seven vertical 

 stripes which make it very conspicuous. It is a 

 slow-swimming fish, frequenting rocky shores in 

 shallow water, piers, and old wrecks, the latter 



