HABITS OF THE PENSACOLA SKAPPEE. 397 



although its color is somewhat less Tivid. Goncerning this species, Mr. Stearns, whose name it 

 bears, writes: "It is abundant on the Gulf coast, and lives in the bays all the year. In summer 

 it is to be found about stone-heaps, wharves, and old wrecks, where it obtains crustaceous food in 

 abundance. In winter it returns to the deeper places in search of food, and to escape from the 

 cold surface water. During a cold snap in 1876 a groat many of these fish were benumbed and 

 floated at the surface, until the sun appeared and warmed them, when they revived and sought 

 the bottom. They spawn in May and June. They are very cunning, and will not readily take the 

 hook. Those commonly seen in the bays are quite small, averaging ten inches in length, while 

 those taken with the Red Snappers at sea are from twenty to twenty-four inches long. It is an 

 excellent food-flsh, generally thought to be superior in flavor to the Eed Snapper." This fish has as 

 yet been found only on the Gulf coasts of the United States, where it is known as the ''Mangrove 

 Snapper." Since this name is used on the Atlantic coast for another species, and has been so used 

 since the time of Oatesby, it seems desirable to designate Zutjanus Stearnsii by another name, and 

 "Pensacola Snapper" has been suggested. 



The Mangrove Snappee — ^Rhomboplites.aueoeubens. 



The "Mangrove Snapper" of Charleston, called at Pensacola the "Bastard Snapper," is a much 

 more slender and elegantly formed fish than either of the Snappers already described. Its color 

 is less vivid, being somewhat more russet, and is enlivened by the presence of narrow, oblique 

 lines, with gold and yellow upon the sides. It is a swift-swimming fish, probably less given to 

 feeding on the bottom, and more partial to a diet of living fish. It has been found at Jamaica, and 

 as far north as Charleston, South Carolina. 



"In the Pensacola region," writes Stearns, "it is a well-known, but not common, species." 

 Single individuals are occasionally brought in from the sea with the Eed Snappers and groupers. 

 It is caught at all depths, from ten to thirty -five fathoms, and seldom exceeds eighteen inches in 

 length. As a food-fish it is equal to the Eed Snapper. The Bermuda Eed Snapper, abundant and 

 much esteemed in those islands, is a small but very brilliantly colored species, not yet describedj 

 which is to be called Lutjanus autolycus. 



The Geat Snappee— LuTJAims oaxis. 



Another snapper, similar in form to these others, but not red in color, which is called the 'Gray 

 Snapper' at South Florida, and the 'Black Snapper' at Pensacola, L. caxis, is abundant about 

 the Bermudas, and has been found on the east coast of Florida, in tropical South America, in 

 Western Africa, and about the Bermudas, where it attains the enormous size of sixty to eighty 

 pounds, and is known as the 'Gray Snapper,' and also, on account of its sly, cunning habits, 

 the 'Sea Lawyer.' Mr. Steams writes: "It is most abundant in South Florida, living in deep 

 channels, on rocky bottoms, about old wrecks, stone-heaps and wharves ; it is considered the most 

 cunning fish on the coast, and is extremely difllcult to catch. The young may be seen about the 

 wharves, and the breeding- ground is probably near by. Those usually observed are from ten to 

 twelve inches in length, but I think I have seen specimens which would measure two feet." 



133. THE GRUNTS OR FIG-FISHES. 



In the inshore waters of the Southern Atlantic and Gulf States occur several species of small 

 fish belonging to the genus Biabasis. They are closely related to the snappers, which they 

 resemble in form, and have remote affinities with the perch, the bass, and the porgy and sheepa- 

 head. Their colors are usually striking, and they, without exception, are distinguished by the 

 brilliant red color of the inside of the mouth and throat, from which they have sometimes been 



