84 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 







Photograph by John Oliver La Gorce 



PROMINENT MEMBER OP TllE NUMEROUS RAY FAMILY 



The whip ray, or spotted sting ray, as he is also known, is now and 

 then seen in the shallow waters adjacent to Miami. The ray uses its 

 broad cephalic fins much as a bird its wings and seems to fly rather 

 than swim through the water. It is beautifully marked with many 

 golden-brown rings. It is not edible. 



ingly colored ; but, lying in plain view on 

 the sand, there is a little pale-colored 

 Sand Flounder so exceedingly incon- 

 spicuous that it is unlikely that we shall 

 see it unless the water is drawn out of 

 the pool and its inhabitants raked into 

 our collecting bottles. 



Even now the possibilities of such a 

 pool have not been exhausted. 



noisy PISHES ok THE DEEP 



One thinks of fishes as leading a life 

 of perpetual silence down there under 

 the waters. This generalization is not 

 in all cases true, however. Lying an- 

 chored in a small boat at night in 



Florida waters, one 

 may sometimes hear a 

 school of sea-drum go 

 swimming by below. 

 "Wop, wop, wop," 

 they seem to say. 

 Then there is the little 

 Trumpet-fish, so call- 

 ed, whose identity is 

 open to question, tech- 

 nically speaking, that 

 will at times lurk 

 under the boat and in- 

 trigue you with its 

 elfin tooting. 



Many species utter 

 croaking or grunting 

 sounds when caught, 

 the various species of 

 grunts owing their 

 name to this habit. 



Grunts are fish 

 somewhat resembling 

 snappers in appear- 

 ance and to a certain 

 extent in habit, but 

 smaller and less vig- 

 orous. They are vari- 

 ously and artistically 

 colored in grays, 

 blues, and )^ellows. 

 The Blue-striped or 

 Yellow Grunt (Plate 

 VII) is yellow, with 

 blue length -wise 

 stripes. The Common 

 Grunt has many nar- 

 row stripes of deep, 

 clear blue on the head, 

 the scales of the shoul- 

 der region enlarged 

 and conspicuous, 

 with grayish borders. 

 The French Grunt is light bluish gray, 

 with broad, undulating, irregular stripes 

 of yellow ; and there are many other 

 varieties. 



Grunts have bright red or orange color 

 at the base of the jaws and inside the 

 large mouth. The color is not visible 

 when the mouth is closed. 



So wonderful and varied are the fishes 

 of our warm seas that one could write 

 on and on about them did time permit ; 

 however, in a later issue of The Geo- 

 graphic will appear another and more 

 extensive color series of the brilliant fish 

 of the Gulf Stream. 



bronze 



color, 



