HABITS OF THE TAUTOG. 271 



The pound fishermen find them to be full of ripe eggs when they begin to approach the 

 shore in early summer. Mr. Christopher E. Dyer, of New Bedford, has witnessed the operation 

 of spawning in Buzzard's Bay in the middle of June, in water about two fathoms deep. This 

 was in 1859 or 1860, about two miles east of Seconnet Point. The number of eggs has not yet 

 been determined, jior is it known how long the period of incubation continues, but young fish are 

 found abundantly in the eel-grass along the shore in August and September, and have been 

 observed at various points from Cape Lookout to Monomoy. There can be no question, however, 

 that there are breeding grounds near Charleston, South Carolina, and north to Cape Cod, since the 

 species is very local in its habits and does not make long journeys to select spawning beds. . Little 

 is known of their rate of growth, though it is probably slow. Capt. Benjamin Edwards, of Wood's 

 Holl, Massachusetts, kept thousands of small Tautog confined in a pond for five years, and at the 

 end of that time, when six years old, none weighed more than two and one-half pounds. A half- 

 pound fish which he confined in a lobster-car, with plenty of room and plenty of food, increased 

 from one-half to three-quarters of a pound in six months. The average weight of those sent to 

 market does not exceed two or three pounds, though individuals weighing ten, twelve, and four- 

 teen pounds are by no means unusual. The largest on record was obtained near New York in July, 

 1876, and is preserved in the National Museum — its length thirty-six and one-half inches, its 

 weight twenty-two and one-half pounds. 



Abundance. — The abundance of this species past and present has been actively discussed 

 and much interesting testimony on the subject may be found in the report of the United States 

 Commissioner of Fisheries. This was one of the fish regarding which the claim was maile that 

 it has been almost exterminated in Khode Island by overfishing: upon this point, however, the 

 opinions of fishermen and experts are much at variance. In 1870 when, according to general 

 opinion, Tautog had been almost exterminated in the waters of Narragansett Bay, the records of 

 Newport fish-markets show that in one day, November 2, eleven men caught about 3,000 pounds 

 of Tautog with hook and line, besides cod and other fish, while on the following day the catch 

 of fifteen men was 28,000 pounds, besides codfish caught to the amount of 600 pounds, being an 

 average of over 2,600 pounds to each man. These catches compare very favorably with that 

 recorded at Fir Eock Ledge, Wareham, ten years previous, when, on the 9th of October, two men 

 caught, in three hours, 271 pounds of Tautog, a catch which was pronounced by local authorities 

 the greatest ever made in those waters.^ Colonel Lyman, Massachusetts commissioner, writing in 

 1872, remarked : " Great complaint is made of the scarcity of this valued species north and south 

 of Cape Cod, but especially near the mouth of Narragansett Bay, where they are said to be not 

 more than one-eighth as numerous as they were a score of years ago." Although much testimony 

 has been printed in the reports of the Fish Commission of the United States and of Rhode Island, 

 the general tendency of which js to show that old fishermen believe that Tautog and other fish are 

 much less abundant than in the days of their youth, nothing definite has yet been proved. 



The Tautog has always been a favorite table fish, especially in New York, its flesh being 

 white, dry, and of a delicate flavor. Storer states that they are frequently pickled, and may be 

 kept in weak brine for a long time, and in this state they are considered by epicures a delicacy. 



The Tautog-ob Black-fish fishery. — The capture of Tautog is chiefly accomplished by the 

 line fishermen of Southern Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and the weir fishermen of the same 

 district. No one fishes for Tautog alone, and it is consequently more difflcult to estimate the 



' Barnstable Patriot, October 9, 1860. 



