444 NATURAL HISTORY OF AQUATIC ANIMALS. 



other seaports, and is carried in great numbers into the interior. Its flesh is very sweet and 

 savory, but it does not keep very well. lu the Vineyard Sound the fishermen are in the habit of 

 crimping their fish, or killing them, by cutting their throats in such a manner that they bleed 

 freely. Every one who has opportunities for observing admits that fish thus treated are far supe- 

 rior to any others. Great quantities of Bluefish are frozen in New York for winter consumption. 

 They aie still considered unfit for food on our Southern coast, and even in the markets of Washing- 

 ton, District of Columbia. I have frequently been stopped by fish-dealers who asked me to assure 

 their customers that Bluefish were eatable. They are growing into favor everywhere, however, 

 just as they did in Boston. Captain Atwood tells me that in 18C5 but very few were sold in Boston, 

 and that the demand has been increasing ever since. When he first went to Boston with a load 

 of Bluefish he got two cents a pound for them ; the second year they were scarcer and he got two 

 and one-half cents, and the year afterwards three cents. 



147. THE COBIA OR CRAB-EATER ELACATE CANADA. 



This fish, known in the Chesapeake Bay as the "Bonito"and "Coal-fish," and as the "Sergeant- 

 fish" in Southern and Eastern Florida, and in Western Florida as the "Ling" or "Snooks," is con- 

 sidered one of the most important food-fishes of Maryland and Virginia, though it is but little 

 known elsewhere. Like the Bluefish, it is cosmopolitan in its distribution, having been recorded in 

 the seas of China and Japan, in Southeastern Hiudostan, in the Malay Archipelago, on the coast 

 of Brazil, in the West Indies and the Bermudas, where it is called the " Cubby-yew," and along 

 our own shores from the Gulf of Mexico to Cape Cod. DeKay speaks of the capture of a single 

 individual in Boston Harbor. The species was originally described by Linnaius from a specimen 

 sent to him from South Carolina by Dr. Garden. The name " Sergeant-fish" refers to its peculiar 

 coloration, several stripes of brown and gray being visible on the sides of the body. The name 

 " Crab-eater" appears to have been ascribed to the fish by Dr. Mitchill. What is known of its habits 

 may be very shortly told. Holbrook remarks : " The Crab-eater is a solitary fish ; it prefers deep 

 and clear water and is only taken singly with a hook. It lives on the coast of Carolina late in 

 May, and is occasionally captured until September, when it is no longer seen in our waters. It is 

 exceedingly voracious, and destroys many smaller fish, which make its ordinary food, though it 

 does not reject crustaceous animals." 



Mitchill cut up a specimen which he obtained in New York market in June, 1815, which had 

 been caught in the bay. He found its stomach distended with food of various sorts, including 

 twenty spotted sand-crabs and several young flounders. DeKay tells us that the specimen from 

 which his description was taken was captured in a seine in the harbor of Boston and placed in a 

 car with other fish. It was soon discovered that he had destroyed and eaten every fish in the 

 car. These fish were chiefly sculpins or porgies. Mr. S. C. Clarke, speaking of the fish fauna of 

 Florida, remarks : " This fish I have never seen except in the Indian River, where it is a common 

 species, lying under the mangrove bushes in wait for prey like a pike, which it much resembles iu 

 form and iu the long under jaw full of sharp teeth." The size is from two to three feet. It attains 

 the length of five feet and the weight of fifteen or twenty pounds. Stearns writes : " It is said by 

 Maj. E. B. Staples, of Sarasota, to be quite common iu South Florida." 



The Cobia breeds in the Chesapeake Bay, where in 1880 Mr. R. E. Earll succeeded in artificially 

 fertilizing the eggs. Dr. Mitchill speaks of its availability as a food fish in the highest terms. 



148. THE TRIPLE TAIL OR BLACK PERCH LOBOTES SURINAMENSIS. 



The Triple-tail of the New York market, Lvbotex surinamensis, known iu South Carolina as 

 the "Black Perch," and to the fishermen of Saint John's River as the "Grouper," is also called 



