The Sheepshead 325 
I have fished for sheepshead alongshore from 
Long Island to the Chesapeake, off the Georgia 
coast at Marion Island, and far out on the Florida 
reef, and have always found it a gamy fish. 
It belongs to the family Sparvzdz, to the sub- 
genus Archosargus, and is known to science as 
Archosargus probatocephalus (Walbaum). Its 
head is large and high, the body deep, with 
a long dorsal fin; the tail forked but not deeply, 
a powerful organ. The mouth is large and 
provided with a curious array of teeth, those 
in front being conical or incisorial, for tearing or 
biting. Back of these are others, in two or 
three rows, which are crushers or grinders. 
These are suggestive of the habits of the sheeps- 
head, which is equipped by nature to live upon 
shells and crustaceans, and wherever found it 
feeds upon young oysters, barnacles, cockles, and 
crabs of various kinds. With the front teeth it 
wrenches shells from rocks or piers, passes them 
to the grinders, where they are crushed as though 
passing through a rock breaker. In color the 
sheepshead is gray, with six or seven vertical 
stripes which make it very conspicuous. It is a 
slow-swimming fish, frequenting rocky shores in 
shallow water, piers, and old wrecks, the latter 
