82 Fisninc ry AMERICAN WATERS. 
the estuaries of the larger rivers. Great quantities are then 
taken in seines, pounds, and set-nets, which supply the marble 
stands of the markets lately vacated by the shad. The sque- 
teague at this time divides interest with the early run of blue- 
fish, and about the middle of June the sheepshead visit us, 
when the variety includes also tautog and black bass, with 
the bonetta, cero, and the incomparable Spanish mackerel. 
These do not include any of the fresh-water fishes, of which 
the black bass is very numerous in June. 
SECTION SECOND. 
SOUTHERN SEA TROUT. 
From Delaware Bay all along the Southern coast, and in 
the estuaries of rivers which debouch into a bay or arm of 
the Atlantic, this fish is taken in great numbers with nets 
and angling tackle, and is known as the “sea trout.” Both 
its habits and play are so much like those of the squeteague, 
or weakfish, that anglers along the coast of New Jersey 
term it the spotted weakfish, to distinguish it from the oth- 
er, Which they call the mottled weaktish; but the inhabit- 
ants of the coast from Delaware to Florida know it only as 
the “sea trout,” or “spotted silversides.” 
ao aN 
Ne 
SovTHERN SEA Trovt.—‘* Ololithus regalis.” 
The body of the sea trout is more round, and it is smaller 
from the tail to the second dorsal and anal fins than the weak- 
fish or squeteague. Its meat is also firmer, and the flakes 
closer and more compact, while its silver-gray back and sides 
are of a bluish tint, which shines like burnished steel, and its 
belly and the lower fins are white, without a yellow tinge. 
