26o Bass, Pike, and Percb 



ward, there taking the place of the northern 

 scup. 



The porgy is a short, deep, and compressed 

 fish, rather elliptical in outline, its depth being 

 nearly half of its length, and with the back 

 elevated over the nape. Its head is of moderate 

 size, with a steep profile, depressed in front of 

 the small eye. The mouth is rather small and 

 the snout short. Its incisor teeth are very nar- 

 row and rather conical or pointed, resembling 

 canines ; there are two rows of molar teeth in 

 the upper jaw. The color is brownish on the 

 top of the head and back with greenish and 

 golden reflections, and bright and silvery below ; 

 the dorsal, anal, and caudal fins are dusky or 

 mottled, and the pectoral fin yellowish. 



The scup appears along the shores of the East 

 Coast about the first of May, sometimes earlier, 

 and continues until late in the fall, when it retires 

 to its winter quarters in the depths of the sea. It 

 is a bottom fish, feeding on crustaceans and small 

 mollusks, and is found wherever they abound on 

 the outer shoals. It usually spawns in June ; the 

 eggs are quite small, measuring about twenty-five 

 to the inch ; they are buoyant or floating, and 

 hatch in four or five days. When perfectly 



