Fishes of Massachusetts. 337 
“Sparus Argyrops.” L. It is taken in large quanti- 
ties in Buzzard’s Bay and the Vineyard Sound, but 
has not been met with in Massachusetts Bay until 
within the last five or six years. At New Bedford 
and Holmes Hole, it is one of the most common 
species in the harbors, and is used more than any 
other fish, when fresh. At the latter place, it is 
taken, from the first of June until the middle of Oc- 
tober, with the hook; after that date, in the ponds, ~ 
With spears and nets. Within a few years, small 
numbers have appeared north of the Cape, and are 
now yearly captured at Wellfleet and Sandwich. 
Mr. Newcomb, Jr., fishmonger in Quincy market, 
informs me, that about six years since, a fishing 
smack brought from New Bedford a cargo of these 
fishes alive to Boston market: a portion of them 
were purchased by subscription among the fishermen 
in the market, and thrown into the harbor: the next 
season, two specimens were caught from our wharves: 
in the summer of 1835, one specimen was captured 
at Nahant, and was considered a very strange fish, 
no specimen having been known to have been seen 
there before: in the summer of 1836, Mr. Johnson, 
of whose kindness I have had occasion frequently 
to speak, sent me another specimen taken at Nahant. 
As no specimens had ever been taken so far north 
before, and as the few taken would lead to the in- 
ference that those which had been transplanted 
from Buzzard’s Bay had not bred in the cold waters 
of this portion of Massachusetts Bay, we are led to 
believe the specimens, taken immediately around 
VOL. IIL.—NO. II—IV. 25 
