The Parrot-fishes 335 



rush that the reel sang again, and Long John, 

 unused to rods, stared in amazement at the bam- 

 boo, and expressed the opinion that it was " dun 

 fer." I can recall no North Atlantic fish, except 

 a large bluefish, with which to compare this 

 gamy creature. It made a clean dash of at least 

 one hundred feet down into deep water, evidently 

 following the sloping bottom, then circled around, 

 coming back when checked, stopping and evi- 

 dently shaking its head, imparting to the rod a 

 most erratic series of motions which seriously 

 threatened its future usefulness. At times the 

 rod was more than outclassed by this fish, and I 

 considered it good fortune more than anything 

 else that I succeeded in holding it at all. Now 

 it was away, deep in the blue channel, then came 

 rushing in, plunging down the coral wall by the 

 side of which we were fishing. A gamier, more 

 keenly active fish I never had played. For sus- 

 tained and powerful resistance, it was a royal fish, 

 and when finally it was brought to the surface 

 after a hard contest, I saw that I had been play- 

 ing a despised and, so far as anglers are con- 

 cerned, utterly neglected parrot-fish. I was 

 amazed. I was familiar with the young, and of 

 all fishes it is to the eye the slowest, the most 



