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BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 
largely of small and minute crustaceans. Foods of much less importance are annelids 
and fish. Only two individuals of the entire lot examined had fed on fish.” 
It may be concluded from these studies of the food that the white perch feeds 
largely on the bottom, that it is strictly carnivorous, and that small to medium-sized 
crustaceans, frequently substituted by worms, constitute the chief foods eaten. It 
is evident also that this species is not a serious enemy of other fishes nor of commer- 
cially utilized crustaceans. On the other hand, the white perch not infrequently 
occurs in the food of such important commercial species as the weakfishes and flounders. 
LEIOSTOMUS XANTHURUS (Lacepede). Spot 
The spot is known from Massachusetts to Texas, and it is of sufficient commercial 
importance to be listed separately in the statistical reports of the United States 
Bureau of Fisheries from all the border States from New York to Louisiana. At 
Woods Hole, Mass., the northernmost limit of its range, Smith (1898, p. 101) found 
it only in the fall, when it was common, and all specimens taken were about 6 inches 
long. Fish of this size probably are young ones that visit these northern waters 
for a short period of time only. Pearson (1929, p. 210) reports the spot as common 
on the coast of Texas where it has little commercial value because it does not attain 
a sufficiently large size. This author states that fish as large as 9.8 inches are taken 
only occasionally and when spot are marketed they are thrown in with the mixed 
fish. The States producing spots in large quantities, according to the latest statistics 
available, are New Jersey (1,217,704 pounds in 1926), Virginia (1,768,206 pounds in 
1925), and North Carolina (1,959,252 pounds in 1927). 
The maximum size recorded for the spot appears to be a Chesapeake Bay record 
of 13% inches and a weight of 22 ounces. In the vicinity of Beaufort the usual size 
of adults seen in the markets is around 10 inches. Such fish weigh close to one-half 
pound each. This fish, like the croaker and the squeteagues, apparently grows 
larger in the more northern parts of its range than it does farther south. Reference 
already has been made to Pearson’s statement (loc. cit.) that the spot, although a 
regular resident and common on the coast of Texas, does not attain a sufficiently 
large size there to be of much commercial value. According to observations by the 
senior author the average size of the fish in commercial catches at Beaufort, N. C., 
is somewhat smaller than at Norfolk, Va. A similar discrepancy in size appears to 
prevail in the croakers and also in the weakfishes. The reason or reasons for an 
average decrease in size in the more southern waters of these sciaenids is not known. 
The spot is taken in small commercial quantities in the local waters throughout 
the su mm er, but the principal catches are made in the fall (October and November), 
when the large fish school. From November 4 to 7, 1914, for example, large schools 
appeared on Beaufort Bar and the fish were taken in schooner loads with purse seines. 
This method of catching food fishes is now forbidden by law, and locally the fish are 
caught mostly with drag seines and to a limited extent with sink nets ; that is, with gill 
nets weighted and sunk to the bottom in the deeper waters. 
The individuals in any one school generally are of rather uniform size. For 
example, the greatest range in size found in a catch consisting of several hundred fish, 
all taken in one haul with an otter trawl, was from 9% to 10% inches. 
The young spots — that is, those of the O and I classes — are present in the shal- 
lower waters throughout the winter, but the larger ones are seen rarely. During 
cold snaps that last long enough to cause a considerable drop in the water tempera- 
ture the I class, too, become scarce in the harbor and estuaries. At other times 
