Our Axpermanic Fist. 85 
the middle of September; but it does not visit streams above 
the estuary, and is found in greatest numbers alone the mus- 
sel shoals or beds, and around old wrecks in the bays. When 
it first makes its appearance in our waters it is thin and 
lean, but it soon increases in plumpness and succulence, so 
that from an average weight of four pounds early in June, 
it increases to nine pounds by the middle of August. Its 
marinuon weight is twenty pounds, but the runs along the 
coasts of Long Island and New Jersey, where they are confess- 
edly in best condition and flavor, seldom range higher than 
from ten to fifteen pounds. Its month is paved throughout 
the roof and lower jaw with square tecth of flat surface, like 
eight-inch square mosaic, but rather larger at the outer edge 
of the jaw, where its even teeth resemble those of a sheep, 
from which it is supposed its name is derived. But the teeth 
are not sharp, and there is space between them for a fish-line 
to play, so that it seldom parts a line, or even a single gut 
snell, while mussels and clams ave instantly crushed to pow- 
der by its powerful jaws. 
SHEEPSHEAD.—Sparus ovis. —De Kay. 
Its seales are large, and surpass in brilliancy the highest 
metallic polish; they are about half'an inch in diameter, hard, 
and radiate from concentric lines, lapping so as to form a de- 
fense on the back and sides against a blunt-pointed gat 
