THE SPOTTED SQUETEAGUE. 3G7 



on grassy bottom, where it finds small flsli and sliriDips in abundance for food. It breeds in insi<lo 

 waters in July or August. Quantities of the fry are seen in August and September. They do not 

 often form in schools in the bays, but in some places are so plentiful that it is not unusual to catch 

 five or eight barrels at one drag of a seine. One man fishing with hook and line sometimes catches 

 one hundred in less than a day. The Trout is an excellent food-fish, and of considerable importance 

 to the fish trade. The demand for it would be much greater if it was not so hard to preserve in 

 this climate." 



118. THE SILVER SaUETEAGUE— CYNOSCION NOTHUM. 



The Silver Squeteague, Gynoscion nothum, called at Charleston the " Bastard Trout," while 

 resembling in shape the two species already described, is easily distinguished from them, being of 

 an uniform silvery hue, the back being slightly darker than the rest of the body. 



One or two individuals have been taken in Chesapeake Bay, but it has rarely been observed north 

 of South Carolina, whence Holbrook obtained the specimens from which the original description was 

 made. I have obtained one or two individuals from the mouth of the Saiut John's Eiver, where 

 they are not distinguished by the fishermen from the Shad Trout, or Northern Squeteague. In the 

 Gulf of Mexico, according to Stearns, it is common in company with the Spotted Squeteague, and, 

 as far as has been observed, its habits are similar. It is, however, according to Jordan, less abun- 

 dant, and is not to be found at all seasons. It is most abundant in Sei)tember and October, but no 

 spawning fish or young have been seen. The " White Trout," as it is called in Pensacola, is 

 is caught with hook and line in company with the Spotted Trout. 



119. THE DRUM— POGONIAS CHROMIS. 



Next to the sword-fish, tunny, Jew-fish, and halibut, the Drum is perhaps the largest of the 

 food-fishes of our coast. It is most abundant in the Gulf of Mexico and in the Southern Atlantic 

 States, though nearly every summer a few specimens appear on the south coast of New England. 

 In one or two instances individuals have been observed as far north as Provincetown, Massa- 

 chusetts. In the Gulf it is common everywhere, even to the southern boundary of Texas; 

 how much farther south it goes there is at present no means of determining. Ichthyologists 

 formerly supposed that there were two species, one of which, of small size and conspicuously 

 banded with brown and white, was called the "Banded Dvnm," P. fasciatus, or "Little Drum." 

 This is now well known to be the young of the P. cliromis. It seems curious that the changes 

 of color in relation to age, although known to Cuvier forty years ago, should have been over- 

 looked by American naturalists, and that the species P. fasciatus should have stood as valid until 

 1873. 



My own observations upon the Drum have been made chiefly in Florida. Specimens of 

 ten and fifteen inches are abundant in the Lower Saint John, and are frequently taken at Jack- 

 sonville, even as high up the river as Doctor's Lake. Large ones are seldom known to pass the 

 bar at Mayport. The young are very dissimilar to the adult fish, though the fishermen recognize 

 the actual relations. In this respect they are more discriminating than the ichthyologist Hol- 

 brook, who described them as distinct species. The adult is known as the "Black Drum," the 

 young as the " Striped Drum." In addition to the marked differences in color, the young has a 

 much more shapely body than the adult, much higher in proportion to its length. The full-grown 

 fish sometimes weigh eighty pounds, though the average is perhaps not more than one-quarter as 

 large. They are sluggish swimmers, and are especially adapted to life on the bottom, where their 



