Miscellaneous Fishes 383 



incisor teeth in each jaw, with peculiar horizontal 

 bases. Its color is bluish-gray, with steely lustre ; 

 the sides have numerous narrow, indistinct, yel- 

 lowish or brassy stripes, alternating with bluish 

 ones; there is a pale stripe below the eye, and 

 a yellowish one above and below it ; the fins are 

 dull grayish. 



The chub feeds on barnacles and other small 

 mollusks, and is found wherever they abound, 

 sometimes in rather deep water. Its usual size 

 is six to ten inches, weighing from one to three 

 or four pounds, but it occasionally grows to fifteen 

 or eighteen inches in length in favorable loca- 

 tions. Its spawning habits have not been 

 studied. It is an excellent pan-fish. Light 

 tackle is needed for the chub and pin-fish, both 

 being usually found together. The hook should 

 be small but strong, with gimp snell ; Sproat 

 hooks, No. i or 2, are very suitable. The best 

 bait is fiddler-crab or hermit-crab. It is quite 

 a game little fish. 



I was once staying for a few days' fishing at 

 the Quarantine Station on Mullet Key, in Tampa 

 Bay. The station is built on piles in water 

 twenty feet deep. There was a trap-door in the 

 floor of one of the rooms, through which many 



