FISHES OF CHESAPEAKE BAY 289 
ing in length from 171 to 252 millimeters (6% to 10 inches), were caught on nine dates in 32 hauls of 
1,800-foot seines. 
This fish frequently is infested with parasites, and often is referred to by fishermen as a very 
“wormy” fish. None of the parasites of this fish, so far as known, are injurious to man, even 
though they might be eaten; and, furthermore, thorough cooking eliminates all possible chance of 
infection. 
In Chesapeake Bay, during 1920, the black drum ranked twentieth in quantity and twenty- 
seventh in value, the catch being 23,700 pounds, worth $238. 
In Maryland the total catch amounted to 700 pounds, worth $8 — -the least valuable of all the 
Maryland commercial fishes. 
The catch in Virginia consisted of 23,000 pounds, the majority of which was taken with pound 
nets in Accomac County. 
The black drum is caught from April until December and is most common in May and No- 
vember. Most of the fish are caught in pound nets, a small number with hook and line, and a few 
with haul seines. Occasionally a school of fish is entrapped in a haul seine, but this happens less 
frequently in Chesapeake Bay than along the Atlantic coast. 
During the season many individual fish are taken by anglers and fishermen of which no record 
can be obtained, and owing to their large size the aggregate catch probably is larger than indicated 
by the statistics collected in 1920. 
The black drum is consumed in Baltimore, Crisfield, Norfolk, and other Chesapeake localities. 
Its value is not sufficient to make shipping to distant markets profitable. During 1921 and 1922 
the price received by the fishermen ranged from 1 to 4 cents a pound. At retail, the fish is sold in 
steaks at 5 to 8 cents a pound. The flesh is coarse and not well flavored. 
The names “drum” and “black drum” are used throughout the Chesapeake. The usual size 
of market fish ranges from 10 to 40 pounds; about 75 pounds is the maximum in the bay. The 
largest fish of which there is a record weighed 146 pounds and was taken in Florida. The following 
weights were obtained: Six and three-quarter inches, 2.8 ounces (1 fish); 734 inches, 2.9 ounces 
(2 fish); 7^4 inches, 3.8 ounces (1 fish); 8)4 inches, 5.6 ounces (3 fish); 9)4 inches, 7 ounces (1 fish); 
10 inches, 9.5 ounces (1 fish); 37 inches, 34 pounds (1 fish). 
Habitat . — Massachusetts to Argentina; common on the South Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the 
United States. 
Chesapeake localities. — (a) Previous records: None. (6) Specimens in collection: Solomons, 
Md., mouth of the Potomac, mouth of the Rappahannock, and Ocean View, Va. Observed at 
various other localities in the bay from Solomons, Md., southward. 
126. Genus UMBRXNA Cuvier. Roncadores 
Body moderately elongate; back more or less arched; head oblong; snout thick, extending 
beyond mouth; mouth horizontal, or nearly so; preopercle with a finely serrated bony margin; 
chin with a single short, thickish barbel; teeth in the jaws in villiform bands; first dorsal with 10 
spines; anal fin with 2 spines, the second somewhat enlarged; caudal fin lunate or truncate; gill 
rakers present but short; air bladder well developed. 
159. Umbrina coroides Cuvier and Valenciennes. Roncador. 
Umbrina coroides Cuvier and Valenciennes, Hist. Nat. Poiss., V, 1830, p. 187, Pi. CXVII; Brazil. Jordan and Evermann, 
189G-1900, p. 1466. 
Head 3.55; depth 3.3; D. X-I, 29; A. II, 6; scales 58. Body elongate, compressed; back 
moderately elevated; head rather short; snout conical, projecting beyond the mouth, 3.3 in head; 
I eye 2.9; interorbital 3.3; mouth moderate, inferior, horizontal; maxillary reaching under middle 
| of eye, 2.55 in head; teeth in jaws small, in villiform bands; chin with a very short, thickish barbel; 
preopercular margin serrate; gill rakers about 11 on lower limb of first arch; scales rather small, 
ctenoid; dorsal fins continuous but deeply notched, the first with rather weak flexible spines; caudal 
fin injured, probably more or less rounded; anal fin very small, the second spine rather long and 
| strong, 2.2 in head; ventral fins moderate, inserted under and a little posterior to pectoral fins; 
| pectoral fins rather short, not reaching tips of ventrals, 1.45 in head. 
