THE SMALL GAME FISHES OF FLOEIDA 



If a trout or a salmon had made such a play the angler would 

 have been enthusiastic beyond measure ; but here was a despised 

 parrot-fish, that no one would eat, a public and private nuisance, 

 but certainly of v£ilue to the angler. How long I played the 

 fish, or how long it played me, I do not remember, but it was 

 certainly more than half an hour before I reeled it alongside my 

 dinghy and watched it, lying prone on its side, roUing its eyes 

 at me in an unflshlike manner. That was long ago, but the jaws 

 of the fish, which I have as a trophy, are still as blue as turquoise. 



There were in these waters a number of these sea-parrots. 

 One, the Loro verde, a beautiful dark green fish, a splendid fighter, 

 that could break an ordinary hook with ease, and fight and defy 

 the angler with extraordinary displays of pugnacity, and sud- 

 denly at the net or gaff, turn over and roll its comical eyes, of a 

 strange colour, at you, when of course you let him go. Some of 

 . these sea-fish attain a length of two or three feet, and a weight 

 of nearly thirty pounds. I am confident that one I took with a 

 hand-hue, called the old wife, or Vieja fish, weighed aU that, but 

 I did not weigh it. 



Their colour is a fascinating study. Thus if the fish is blue, 

 its bony jaws are blue. If green, they are green ; the teeth 

 seemingly have coalesced, forming a peculiar beak, so powerful 

 that they can easily bite off a branch of coral or any equally hard 

 substance. They, apparently, are found all over the world in 

 tropical seas. Some are eaten, but in Florida the colours sug- 

 gested copper to the natives and Conchs, and they are not used 

 to any extent, and I do not recall that I experimented upon 

 them myself, or upon myself with them. 



The chub, or Chopa lilanca, was one of this throng that, 

 apparently, has never been discovered as a game fish, but a 

 royal little fellow, and not so little after all, as specimens I took 

 tipped the scales at ten pounds, and could be compared only to 

 the parrot-fishes as hard and desperate fighters. Possibly it is 

 because, when taken at all by tourists, they are caught with large 

 hand-hues of the size used for red snappers, with a big sinker, 



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