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BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
said to school. One intelligent fisherman says, however, that it does not school at Key West, though 
it does in the Bahamas. It is generally found on rock or barry bottom, around shoals. At night it 
comes into more shallow water to feed — crabs, crawfish, worms, etc., constituting the bulk of its food. 
The bait used for it is crawfish or crabs. Cold is said not to affect this fish to any great extent. It 
does not appear to be very common about Porto Rico, but is highly esteemed. The largest obtained 
by us was 8.75 inches long. 
The origin of the common name of the “ margate-fish ” is not generally understood. It appears, 
however, to have been derived from Margate, a well-known seaport and watering-place in England. 
Some of the fishermen of the Bahamas came originally from Margate and applied the name to one of 
the fishes which they found in the Bahamas. Many of these fishermen (Conchs) have come to Key 
West and brought the name with them. The name Margate is, at Key West, sometimes corrupted into 
“Margat” and “Margaret,” while in Biscayne Bay it is “Margat.,” “Market,” or “Margarite.” 
Perea marina gibbosa (Margate-fish), Catesby, Nat. Hist. Carolinas, etc.,‘2, pi. 2, 1742, Bahamas. 
Hsemulon album Cuvier & Valenciennes, Hist. Nat. Poiss., V, 241,1830, St. Thomas; Jordan & Evermann, 1. e., 1296, 1898. 
Fig. 51 . — Itxmulnn macrostomum. 
137. Hsemulon macrostomum Gunther. G'ray Grunt; Striped Grunt; “Corocorn." 
Plead 2.75 to 2.8; depth 2.9; eye 4.33 to 5; snout 2.33; maxillary 2; interorbital 3.6; preorbital 
about 5; D. xu, 16; A. iii, 8; scales 9-53-12; pectoral 1.4 in head; ventral 1.75 to 1.8. Body deep, 
compressed, back elevated in adult, profile nearly straight from tip of snout to occiput, thence gently 
curved to origin of dorsal; ventral outline straight; snout long and pointed, jaws subequal; mouth 
large, nearly horizontal, maxillary reaching middle of pupil. Teeth moderate, outer row in upper 
jaw and posterior teeth in both jaws considerably enlarged; preopercle finely serrate; gillrakers 
moderate; scales moderate, those above lateral line not enlarged, those below slightly enlarged on 
anterior part of body; scales above arranged in very oblique series, those below oblique anteriorly, 
becoming horizontal posteriorly. Dorsal spines strong, longest about 2.4 in head; soft dorsal high, 
longest rays 3 in head; caudal lobes subequal, lobes 1.5 in head; anal spines strong, second longest 
and strongest, 2.8 in head, not reaching past tip of last soft rays when depressed; soft anal high, its free 
edge concave, longest rays 2.5 in head and reaching beyond tips of last rays when depressed; caudal 
and soft parts of dorsal and anal densely and finely scaled; pectorals and ventrals with a few fine scales. 
Color in life: Body dirty-silvery with about nine dark longitudinal streaks, plainest in young; a 
median strijDe from snout to origin of dorsal; first and second lateral stripes extend from above eye to 
posterior end of soft dorsal, third begins on upper rim of orbit and extends to vertical of posterior end 
of soft dorsal where it joins fifth line; fourth line, which is usually indistinct, begins at eye, extends 
