368 REPORT OF THE 



have been or can be reduced materially by the contrivances of man now in use for 

 their capture is open to question. 



TI)e ^onito. 



The bonito or striped bonito visits our shores in schools during the summer. It 

 is a fine, handsome species, weighing ten pounds or more, and certainly looks good 

 enough to eat, although it is seldom captured by the fishermen and is rarel}^ seen in 

 our markets. Many who have eaten the bonito claim that it is really a good food 

 fish, but that popular taste has not been cultivated to accept it. I remember while 

 in Washington, D. C, some years ago that a number of large, handsome bonitos 

 were sent to the National Museum from Massachusetts for the purpose of having 

 them properly cooked and served as a dinner for several of the scientific men of that 

 institution. The dinner was a success, and most, if not all, of those partaking of it 

 were satisfied that the bonito was of as good a flavor as many of our fishes which 

 bring high prices. However, this did not change the popular taste, and to-day the 

 bonito roams the seas, frequently in immense schools, in comparative freedom, the 

 majority of the fishermen not thinking him worth the trouble of capture. Like 

 the swordfish, which was at one time not so very many years ago thought to be 

 unfit for food, the bonito may come into favor and then high prices will surely have 

 to be paid for him. 



In the young of this species the stripes or lines on the sides are broken into short 

 lengths, but it is, like the adult, a beautiful fish. The food of the bonito is small fish. 



Tl)e J^cttter-Fist). 



The butter-fish, harvest-fish or dollar-fish is common along our shores in summer, 

 when it is frequently taken by the fishermen in nets in abundance. It is a small 

 species, rarely half a pound in weight, but held in some esteem as a food fish, although 

 rather soft, not standing transportation well. As specimens alive in an aquarium it 

 is a constant delight, the play of colors on its sides reminding one of the flashes of 

 colored lights from a fine opal. 



In the South a related form is frequently kept alive in floating cars by its negro 

 captors and killed and dressed for the purchaser. A look into the well-stocked 

 floating cars of the Key West fishermen, where fishes as gay as parrots or tropical 

 butterflies may be seen alive, is a revelation to a Northerner. Our friend the 

 harvest-fish may often be seen among the gay tropical inhabitants of these coral 

 seas. 



