SYSTEMATIC CATALOGUE OF FISHES. 



319 



emits, through the joint action of a tense air-bladder and a rapidly contracting 

 pair of special muscles. This sound may be heard for a considerable distance 

 below the surface when a fish is caught on the hook, and is also produced after 

 the fish is landed. Both sexes croak, in which respect this species differs from 

 all other local scisenids. The croaker's air-bladder is of a very peculiar shape. 

 •The body is oblong; from each side arises a slender process or horn which extends 

 forward beyond the anterior end of the bladder and then curves backward, the 

 two horns approaching close together near the anterior pole; extending backward 

 from the posterior end of the bladder is a slender tail-like appendage. 



On parts of Pamlico Sound this fish is known as "hard-head", and "crocus" 

 is in quite general use. The latter uame, which has by some persons been regarded 

 as a modern corruption of croaker, was applied to the fish in North Carolina at 

 least as early as 1709, when John Lawson wrote: 



The crocus is a fish, in shape like a pearch, and in taste like a whiting. They croke and 

 make a noise in your hand, when taken with hook or net. They are very good. 



The croaker does not usually exceed 10 or 12 inches in length but may reach 

 18 inches. It feeds largely on crustaceans, and bites readily at crab bait, but 

 it also eats fish. The stomach contents of 17 adults examined by Dr. Coker at 

 Beaufort in June and July consisted chiefly of razor clams, annelids, and amphi- 

 pods. Twelve young croakers, 2 to 3.5 inches long, contained large numbers of 

 young and. adult copepods and amphipods, young barnacles (cypris stage), 

 ostracods, and nematode worms. 



The spawning time of the croaker is late fall or early winter, and the spawn- 

 ing grounds are the sounds, estuaries, and inside waters generally. By the first 

 of August the young have attained an average length of 5 inches in Beaufort 

 Harbor, and by the time the spawning period arrives the largest yearlings may 

 be 7 or 8 inches long. 



Among the salt-water fishes of the state the croaker is exceeded in impor- 

 tance by only the mullets and squeteagues. At Beaufort and other points it was 

 for a long time regarded with little favor and often discarded, but it has now 

 become a very salable species, being a good pan fish and keeping well when 

 shipped to the markets. It is caught along the entire coast in seines, gill nets, 

 and pound nets, and is taken also in considerable quantities with hand lines, 

 especially in Craven County. From 285,775 pounds, worth $7,172, marketed in 

 1889 the yield arose to 1,279,000 pounds, worth $18,936, in 1897, and by 1902 

 the catch had increased to 1,928,635 pounds, valued at $38,320. A small pro- 

 portion of the product is salted. 



Genus SCLffiNOPS GiU. Red Drums. 



This genus includes a single species, and is distinguished by a rather elongate, 

 slightly compressed body; arched back; well developed teeth in jaws; short, 

 thick gill-rakers; serrations on preopercle disappearing with age; absence of 

 scales on soft dorsal fin, and other characters indicated in the foregoing key. 

 {Scicenops, having the appearance of Scisena, an ancient name of one of the 

 Mediterranean drums.) 



