48 Big Game Fishes 
at Key West and Porto Rico. It spawns in 
July and August and it is said to school; but I 
have never seen such propinquity in the sense 
of schooling mullets, jacks, or other tropical 
schooling fish. Snappers, in my observations, 
were always seen together; that is, where there 
was one, ten or fifteen would be observed in the 
immediate vicinity, perhaps poising, or moving 
slowly about, never conveying the impression that 
there was a school — rather a community, as they 
have the home instinct strongly developed, and, 
like all snappers, live in certain localities, remain- 
ing there during the day, but wandering abroad 
at night, like many tropical fishes, to feed in the 
shallow lagoons or flats, where they were never 
found during the day. 
The habit of night feeding in shallow water 
was very marked at Garden Key, so much so that 
when it was necessary to catch rare fishes we 
invariably hauled the seine in the lagoon between 
ten and twelve o'clock at night, always taking 
many forms which were never seen there at other 
times. There was one drawback—large sharks 
and sting rays were particularly addicted to night 
strolling, and frequently became entangled in the 
nets, 
