Nov. 4, 18g9.ll 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
said it looked like a convict. The fish is certainly easily 
identified by the five iip-and-down bars of black on each 
side of the broad flat body. The color not covered by 
the bars is of a metallic green. 
E. LUTZ. 
Concerning the food qualities of some of the species 
described by Mr. Lutz, James Macdonald Rogers writes 
•in the Popular Science Monthly: 
Considering the number of unwholesome fish abound- 
ing in these waters, and the numerous cases of illness 
caused by them, I was surprised on investigation to find 
that so little appeared to be known or written on the sub- 
ject. During my three years' cruise in the West Indies 
BLUE PARROT FISH. 
the stady of those fishes reputed to be poisonous was 
forced upon me by reason of the numerous cases of illness 
among the sailors of my own ship. When it is asserted 
that there are no less than sixty varieties of noxious fishes 
to be found in Cuban waters alone, it seems desirable that 
those who are about to settle in these parts should have 
some general idea as to what fish to choose and what to 
avoid. 
One of the commonest fish in these seas is the barracuda 
(Sphyrcena barracuda) , which can be easily recognized by 
its elongated bodj', covered with cycloid scales. The 
color is dark olive green on the back, fading to a lighter 
green on the sides, while its under surface is silvery white. 
TRIGGER FISH. 
The mouth is wide and curved with long and sharp 
teeth. These fishes are large and voracious, often attain- 
ing the length of 6ft. ; and as they are usually found close 
inshore, amid the heaviest surf, they are as much feared 
by fishermen and bathers as the shark. The poisonous 
symptoms caused by this fish are peculiar, and were 
strongly marked in the cv.se of a friend of mine, who was 
a solicitor, living in Barbados. His face swelled up and 
.became tubercular like a leper; afterward, general mus- 
cular tremblings and acute pain about the body, particu- 
larly in the joints of his hands and arms, came on. The 
nails of his feet and hands became black and fell of? 
witho'^t any pain, and his hair also fell put. 
The "yellow-tailed sprat" (Clupea thrissa) is common 
SILVER BREAM. 
in the West Indies, and may be recognized by having its 
last dorsal ray prolonged into a filament. A black spot 
behind the gill cover is said to distinguish it^^from a 
somewhat similar fish, the "red-eared pilchard," which 
has a yellow spot behind its gill cover. The eating of this 
poisonous "sprat" is said to be followed by most violent 
symptoms and rapid death. The common saying in the 
West Indies, that if you begin at the head you never 
have time to finish the tail, is almost literally true. Most 
of the cases of fish poisoning which I have met with in 
the West Indies have been due to eating various kinds of 
"snappers," especially the "gray snapper." The tropical 
species are very numerous and difficult to differentiate, 
owing to their frequent change of color, according to age 
and surroundings. In 1897 at St. Georges, Grenada, 
twelve persons who partook of a large gray snapper were 
attacked with severe symptoms of fish poisoning. A few 
hours after the meal all these were suffering from pain 
and fullness in the stomach, followed by persistent vomit- 
ing, severe cramps, water}-- evacuations, weak, thready 
pulse and labored respirations. 
The horse mackerel, green c^vjiUa and the jack a,re often, 
found most unwholesome when caught in West Indian 
waters. The "jack" {Caran plumieri) is found to be 
poisonous in some seasons of the year, and it is said that 
at such times two small red lumps appear in its gills. 
Toadfish, or Tetrodons, are occasionally met with, and 
are to be avoided as being extremely poisonous, especially 
if the roe or liver be eaten. The Diodonts, "trunkfishes," 
are not nearly so poisonous as the Tctrodonts, but they 
are found to be very noxiotts at certain times, or in certain 
localities, more especially if the gall bladder, liver and 
intestines are not removed before cooking. It is reported 
that those persons who had eaten them suffered from loss 
of sensibility, cold sweat over the whole body and stiffened 
limbs. Death followed in some cases. 
The "prickly bottle fish" {Diodon orbicularis), met 
with in the Gulf of Mexico, is said to be injurious when 
eaten. The Ostracion triqiictcr, called in the West Indies 
"fair maid," "platefish," "trunkfish," is often eaten with 
no ill effects by the negroes, who, after cleaning it, bake 
it in its hard shell-like covering. There is, however, a 
gelatinous matter near the tail which is called "the jelly," 
and a similar .substance is found near the head. When 
only part of this jelly has been eaten its effects are a 
peculiar vertigo, nausea, vomiting, pains all over the body, 
more especially in the limbs. The "filefishes," or "trigger 
fishes," when found in the tropics where they feed on 
coral polypi, have the reputation of being most unwhole- 
COW FISH. 
\ some. Dr. Gordon, of Montego Bay, Jamaica, records a 
case of death from eating the flesh and liver of a species 
of coast conger (Gymnothorax restrains). In spite of 
treatment, the man died after a lingering illness. Space 
will not permit me to dwell, in this article, on the re- 
maining noxious fishes, but it is to be hoped that enough 
has been written to teach people to be cautious in their 
selection of fish when in the West Indies. 
ANGLING NOTES. 
The ^'Sawbelly." 
It is unfortunate that one should write upon a certain 
subject for publication and afterward forget entirely where 
the story was printed, but this evening I find myself in 
that situation. To the best of my recollection some one 
asked me about the fish locally known in Lake Ontario 
as the "sawbelly," its other names being alewife or French 
herring, and why it died in vast numbers every year, both 
TRUNK FISH. 
in Lake Ontario and in the St. Lawrence River. My re- 
ply was that in all probability the fish died because of 
change in temperature of the water, and I presume this 
reply was given in Forest and Stream, as I am not in 
the habit of replying to queries in any other journal; but 
T cannot at this moment find the note. 1 have watched 
the herrings as they came to the surface in the St. Law- 
rence and died without a mark to indicate disease of any 
kind, and Ihey acted as other species of fish do when they 
come out of the cold depths into warm surface water. 
Recently I visited Cayuga Lake to see Mr. H. A. Sur- 
face, who has been investigating the fish fauna of the Cay- 
■SQUIRREL FISH. 
uga Lake basin, and he told me that lake trout had been 
taken in the lake at a depth of 35oft. filled with the "saw- 
belly," proving that they resort at least to this depth, and 
very likely they may yet be found still deeper in the lake 
when the traps are placed deeper to discover the fishes 
which inhabit 400 to 500ft. of water. The "sawbelly" 
coming out of the deep, cold water in the spring into 
the warm surface water perish in such quantities that the 
dead fish line the shores, and fears have been entertained 
that such masses of dead fish would endanger the public 
health. 
At this point I was reminded that last summer I cut 
an item from a newspaper in regard to this very fish, and 
upon searching for it I have found it. It has the head- 
lines: "Dead Fish in Lake Ontario. Tons of a Variety 
SERGEANT MAJOR. 
Resembling the Sea Herring Found on the Shore," and 
the .clipping reads as follows : 
"Charlotte, N. Y., July ii. — The cottagers along Lake 
Ontario between here and Sodus have, it is "estimated, 
buried 100 tons of dead fish cast up by the waves already 
this season. The fish resemble very closely the salt water 
herring. As a result of this resemblance some persons 
have advanced the theory that the fish are herrings that 
have ascended the St. Lawrence River and have been 
unable to live in the fresh waters. Others think that 
ANGEL FISH. 
the fish are fresh water herrings, and that they have been 
killed by the rigors of winter or by some parasite. A 
third theory is that the authorities in stocking Lake On- 
tario with whitefish made a mistake and instead put in 
some spawn of a salt water fish, either alewives or herring, 
and that these fish lived and bred, but are soon killed 
off by the fresh water." 
The fish very closely resemble the salt water herring, 
because that is exactly what it is — a landlocked form of the 
French herring or alewife — and they probably did ascend 
the St. Lawrence River at some period; but it was so 
long ago that no living man knows when. The authori- 
ties did not make any mistake and plant this fish for 
whitefish, for the authorities (which means the Fisheries 
Commission of the State- or the United States Fish Com- 
mission) had nothing whatever to do with it. Nature 
did the planting several hundred years, possibly, before a 
SURGEON FISH. 
fisheries commission was ever dreamed of. Mitchell de- 
scribed the fish in his report of the- fishes of New York 
in 1814, fifty years before the State had a fish commis- 
sion and forty years before a fish was hatched artificially 
in this country. Cuvier and Valenciennes described it in 
1847, and Jordan described it from Cayuga Lake in 1876. 
Fish commissions are a convenient vehicle on which 
to unload all the sins of omission and commission which 
exist or are imagined in the fish world. The report of the 
whitefish-sawbelly mistake of the authorities in Lake 
Ontario now appears in a cycle of three years, whereas it 
used to be annual and charged direct to Seth Green, and 
there seems to be a chance that it will die out, as a friend 
of mine says, "eventually, if it ever does." 
Mitchell described the brook trout the same year that 
he described the "sawbelly." and his name, fontinalis, 
sticks to the trout yet; but his name for the "sawbelly," 
Clupea vernalis, was not long enough for those who came 
after him, and it is now Pomolobus pseudoharengus var. 
lucustris (lake variety of false herring), and that is prob- 
ably the reason why so little is known of the fish, as the 
length of the name rather discourages investigation of 
the fish itself, It has been t-fiarged that the "sawbelly" 
