188 SPINY-FINNED FISHES 



applied. It is really the Black Groupee.^ Its normal 

 weight is .300 pounds, and "only one specimen weighing less 

 than 100 pounds" has been recorded. (Jordan and Ever- 

 mann.) I have reason to know the appearance of this fish 

 quite well. It is a great, hulking, coarse-grained creature, 

 unattractive to the eye, except that of the successful light- 

 tackle angler, and very inferior on the table. In no point 

 has it the look of a high-class animal, for every line is coarse 

 and plebeian; but it has the avoirdupois of a Wonder. 



The Striped Bass,- Rock Fish or Rock, is the finest 

 representative of the whole great Familj^ of Sea Basses. It 

 is a fish of handsome form and colors, its table qualities are 

 excellent and it is a persistent breeder. Its ground-color is 

 silver-white, on which is laid, along the upper two-thirds of 

 the body, a series ' of seven straight, equidistant stripes of 

 black. It is a fish of large size, often attaining a weight of 

 85 to 90 pounds, and its flesh is most excellent. In the 

 markets it stands next in desirability to the shad and blue- 

 fish. The greatest weight recorded for this species (by Dr. G. 

 Brown Goode) is 112 pounds. 



The centre of abundance of this fine fish is now from Fire 

 Island, New York, to Albemarle Sound, on the coast of 

 North Carolina. Many great catches have been reported, 

 the most notable of which were the following: x\t Bridge- 

 hampton. New York, in 1874, 8,000 in less than a week; by 

 Charles Ludlow, 1,672 bass at one set of a seine; at Norfolk, 

 Virginia, 1,500 at one haul; in eight days of June, 1879, oft' 

 Fire Island, one fisherman caught 10,164 pounds. 



' Gar-ru'pa ni-gri'ta. ' Roc'cus Un-e-a'tus. 



