44 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS [VvoL. 48 
transparent tissues.” In the water in fact their eyes alone are 
visible. Gilbert tells that “ from this condition they become gradu- 
ally shorter and more compact, shrinking from three or three and 
a half inches in length to two inches.” Then their form becomes 
much like that of maturity and from that stage they grow regularly 
till the proportions of ripe age are attained. 
The various phases of this remarkable growth during which, with 
advancing days, the developing fish grows smaller and smaller, 
have all been found by Professor Gilbert and drawn under his 
direction.” Having at length shrunk to almost half the length of 
the longest esunculoid stage and acquired a roundness and com- 
pactness of body as well as shape of the adult, it starts anew in 
growth and continues till the size and other characteristics of the 
adult are attained. The history of the metamorphosis of the species 
is quite as remarkable as that of the butterfly. With diminishing 
length, with increased compactness, the myotomes or muscular folds 
grow closer together and less obvious, the dorsal fin and, to a less 
extent, the anal become better developed and advance towards the 
middle, and innumerable minor or, rather, less evident changes 
accompany such until the adult form in miniature is obtained. 
av 
One of its haunts is “the waters of Biscayne Bay and those 
extending some 60 miles further south,’ and by residents of that 
shore it “is not known to be found anywhere ” else. There probably, 
at least, it is angled for as much if not more than elsewhere and 
is quite generally regarded as the gamiest fish that swims. There 
near Miami, August Thomas (1903) verified to his own satisfac- 
tion the verdict of the neighborhood. He approached a school, as 
is generally done, in a boat with a guide. 
“Your guide works the boat towards them carefully, for they are 
as timid as a deer, and once frightened are very difficult to ap- 
proach. When within 50 or 60 feet, which is as close as it is pos- 
sible to get without frightening the fish, you cast the bait to a spot 
in line with the direction the fish are working, and not nearer than 
1A brief notice of Prof. Gilbert’s observations was communicated to 
Jordan and Evermann (1, 411), but Prof. Gilbert has informed the writer that his 
results are still unpublished. A figure of an esunculoid stage has been given 
by Boulenger (C. N. H., vu, 548) “after Gilbert,’ but otherwise no authority 
is mentioned. 
2The writer is indebted to Professor Gilbert for a proof of the accompanying 
figure which is to be published in President Jordan’s great forthcoming work 
on fishes. 
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