182 PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



favorable time would make an immense school or schools, if consolidated. 

 The fishermen report them in small bunches outside and offshore. I 

 have never seen one in the spring which would measure over six inches, 

 and the greater number measure less than that ; all the fishermen con- 

 firm this. 



They seem to stay in brackish water until they get accustomed to the 

 change, and lose their parasite,* and then go directly into the fresh 

 water. About May 27, 1 hauled a seine in a fresh-water stream near the 

 head of the bay, and caught nearly a barrel of Brevoortia patronus. 

 Their color was darker, and I did not find any parasites in their mouths. 

 Their stomachs were full of food, but I could find no traces of spawn or 

 milt. I do not know exactly when they return from fresh water, but 

 last October Major Staples and I caught about two dozen in a gill-net 

 with a mesh of 3^ inches. I remember that they were gilled very hard, 

 and therefore judge that they must have been quite large. I am quite 

 positive that they belonged to the same species. 



Pensacola, Fla., June 6, 1878. 



A NOTE IT POX THE BLACK GROUPER (EPINEPHELUS NIGRITUS (HOE- 

 BROOK) GIEE) OF THE SOUTHERN COAST. 



By O. BROWN GOODE and TARLETON H. BEAN. 



Among the specimens from Pensacola sent by Mr. Stearns, there is 

 the u Jew -fish " of West Florida, said to attain the weight of three or four 

 hundred pounds. 



The specimen (No. 21,329) measures in length 29 inches, and weighs 

 16 pounds. It was described while in a fresh condition. 



SYNONYMY. 



Serranus-nigrihis, Holbrook, Ichthyology of South Carolina, p. 173, pi. xxv, fig. 2. — 

 Gunther, Catalogue of the Acanthopterygian Fishes in the Collection 

 of the British Museum, I, 1859, p. 134. 



Epincphelus nigritus, Gill, Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Phila- 

 delphia, 18(55, p. 105 ; Report of the U. S. Commissioner of Fish and 

 Fisheries for 1871-72, 1873, p. 806; Catalogue of the Fishes of the East 

 Coast of North America, 1873, p. 28. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Diagnosis. — Body oblong, thick, tapering very gradually from the 

 insertion of the dorsal and the end of the ventral. Its greatest height 

 (behind ventrals) is contained three and one-sixth times in total length 

 (caudal included) and about equal to length of head. The height of 

 body at ventrals is slightly greater than one-third of total length with- 



*This species is infested hy the same parasite -which is so common in the mouths of 

 the common Menhaden in Southern waters, the Cymothoa prazgustalor (Latrohe) Say. 



