56 fish: their habits and haunts. 



epicures. It affords much amusement for 

 anglers. It is taken on reefs or about de- 

 tached rocks, where the faod in which it 

 delights is found. 



The usual baits employed in taking black- 

 fish are the hard-shelled and soft-shelled 

 clam, the rock-crab, and soldier-crab or fid- 

 dler, the shrimp, and shedder-lobster or crab. 

 The last two are decidedly the best that can 

 be used. There is a very great difference 

 observable in the black-fish, even in those 

 feeding together at the same rock. Those 

 taken close to the rock are shorter, darker 

 colored, and thicker than those which are 

 found playing in the edge of the tide as it 

 sweeps past the rock. These are long, with 

 large heads, and of a light color, especially 

 about the head and snout, the latter fre- 

 quently being nearly white ; whence they are 

 called white-noses and tide-runners. They 

 seem to delight in the eddies at the very 

 edge of swift water, where they watch for 



