LAWYERS AMONG OYSTERS. 459 
shell and shedder crabs; and it is usually on this latter bait 
that anglers take them in New York waters. 
Mr. N. Saltus,a coast angler, who usually spends his win- 
ters in Florida for the sake of its excellent fishing, thus writes 
me: “The drum fishes are found in the month of February 
in Indian River, Florida, and about this time they commence 
their northward trip for summering. About the first week 
in March they enter the Matanzas and the St. Augustine 
inlets, where for the next three weeks they may be heard 
drumming, as they feed on oysters and have in their throat 
a crushing mill, where they grind the oyster-shell, extracting 
the oyster [equal to a lawyer] and rejecting the shell, the 
crushing of which makes the drumming sound, after which 
the fish is named. Early in April they appear in the rivers 
about Beaufort, South Carolina, and about June Ist are dis- 
covered at Cape May, which is near the limit of their north- 
ern trip. A few stragglers extend to the waters about Staten 
Island. They run in shoals, and weigh from eight to a hun- 
dred pounds; but forty to sixty is the run of large ones. 
When caught with a bass rod and reel they make fine sport, 
but they play low. A ‘baby drum’ of from five to ten 
pounds is as fine eating as any fish; but larger than ten 
pounds they increase in coarseness, though a good table fish 
as a boiler from twenty to thirty pounds.” 
The drum is in New York considered a game fish, and 
Mr. Brown, of the Latourette Club, won ‘“ high-hook” at a 
contest in Newark Bay, in August, 1872, by capturing a for- 
ty-pound red drum. 
The red drum is red on back, fins, head, tail, and white ab- 
domen. Its mouth is armed with a forest of fine teeth, cov- 
ering the border of the mouth for a half inch all round; and 
in its throat it has an upper and lower millstone, by which 
it crushes oysters, clams, and mussels, and producing a sound 
like the beating of a muffled drum. Its fins are formed of 
soft rays, as represented by the engraving, which is a very 
exact likeness, even to the square tail and large tongue. 
