396 NATDEAL HISTOEY OF AQUATIC ANIMALS. 



rounding bottom, and more rocky, and in the deepest parts richer in animal life. Eed Snappers 

 are exceedingly abundant in these places, which are the so-called 'snapper banks.' From Temple 

 Bay to Cedar Keys the gullies are numerous in sixteen, eighteen, and twenty fathoms; from 

 Cedar Keys to Saint Mark's, in fifteen and sixteen fathoms. Off Saint Mark's and Dog Island 

 there are a few in five and ten fathoms. From Cape San Bias to the mouths of the Mississippi 

 Eiver occur the best fishing grounds in the Gulf, so far as is now known; gullies in ten and 

 fifteen fathoms of water especially abundant from the cape, fifty miles to the west. West of the 

 Mississippi, on the Texas coast, there are a few which are in twelve and fifteen fathoms. These 

 grounds are found by the use of the sounding-lead, which shows every position by the sudden 

 increase in the depth of the water. Eed Snappers live in such places all the year, except, perhaps, 

 in some of the five and ten fathom ones, which are nearly deserted in winter. Off Pensacola there 

 seems to be quite a movement inshore in spring and offshore in fall. In South Florida they are 

 usually associated with the groupers, which occur in the proportion of about three to one, while 

 in West Florida the case is reversed ; not more than one fish in ten of those caught is a grouper." ^ 



Eed Snappers are also known to be abundant on the Savannah Bank and on the Saint John's 

 Bank, off Eastern Georgia and Florida. 



The Eed Snappers are strictly carnivorous, feeding upon small fish, crabs, and prawns. The 

 temperature of the water in which they live probably rarely falls below 50°. They have no enemies 

 except sharks and two or three enormous spiny-rayed fishes, such as the jew-fish or Warsaw {Guasa). 

 The only reliable observations upon their breeding habits have been made by Mr. Stearns, who states 

 that they spawn in May and June in the bays and at sea. In June, July, and August they are 

 found in some of the bays of the Northern Gulf, about wrecks and rock-piles, in considerable 

 numbers, and none are taken but the larger adults and the young from one to eight inches long. 

 The spawning season probably extends over a period of several months, Mr. Stearns having found 

 well-developed ovaries in them from April to July. Nothing is known of their rate of growth. 

 They attain the size of forty pounds. In East Florida, however, the average is much less. Mr. 

 Stearns remarks that in the Gulf of Mexico they- very seldom exceed thirty pounds' weight, 

 though he has seen several of that size, while the average is eight or nine pounds, and in a large 

 lot may usually be found individuals weighing from two and a half to twenty pounds. 



Eed Snappers from Florida are frequently quoted in the New York market returns. In 1879 

 about 12,000 pounds were there sold. They are also shipped to New York, Washington, and 

 Baltimore in winter, the supply in these cities being derived chiefly from Pensacola. Mobile and 

 New Orleans consume considerable quantities, and from these ports they are shipped up the 

 Mississippi Eiver to the principal cities along its line, where the fish is growing to be a staple of 

 much importance. In Saint Louis it is already one of the most highly esteemed food-fishes. The 

 price in New York in 1879 ranged from twenty to twenty-four cents per pound, but they are now 

 less expensive. 



The Pensacola Snapper. 



The Eed Snapper belongs to a genus which is found everywhere in tropical waters; fish 

 resembling it occur everywhere throughout the West Indies. There is a kind of Eed Snapper 

 which is abundant on the Bahama Banks and in South Florida. This is L. eampechianus Poey, 

 perhaps also acccompanied by L. torridus Cope. Two other brilliant red species occur with L, 

 Blaokfordii in the Gulf of Mexico — the Pensacola Snapper, L. Stearnsii, and the Mangrove Snapper, 

 Bitomboplites aurorubens, the former of which might easily be mistaken for the L. Bladkfordii, 



■Silas Stearns, MS. 



