140 
THE BOOK OF FISHES 
Photograph by John Oliver La Gorce 
SWAPPING WHOPPERS 
To young and old alike the mystery and lure of fishing is ever beckoning and the teller of fantastic fish 
stories is always with us. 
perhaps, the Dolphin—to frequent the 
haunts of man. 
While wariness is a common trait of 
game fish, one species, the Jacks, seems 
to have no fear of man and his traffic. 
They may often be observed resting 
lazily, in tidal waters, under a bridge or 
near the shore, where the traffic is con¬ 
stant. They cruise slowly around, await¬ 
ing the approach of their favorite food, 
the Mullet. When a school of Mullets 
appears in sight, there is instant action. 
The Jacks marshal their forces and bear 
down upon their prey, upon which they 
wreak spectacular and terrible carnage. 
The Amber Jack is the largest and 
gamiest of its family and inhabits both 
the shoal and deep waters among the 
Florida Keys, the West Indies, and Ber¬ 
muda. It provides excellent sport for 
trolling and will take almost any kind of 
live bait offered by still-fishing. It is a 
carnivorous, surface-living fish of con¬ 
siderable food value in the Bermudas and 
the West Indies, where large numbers 
are taken for market purposes. It is not 
so highly considered in the Florida mar¬ 
kets, where its cousin, the Yellow Jack, is 
more common (Color Plate, page 155). 
The Yellow Jack is also a surface-living 
fish of graceful lines and beautiful color¬ 
ation. It resembles the Amber Jack 
closely, both in habits and appearance, 
although it does not reach so large a size. 
CONTRIBUTING TO THE WORLd’s 
KNOWLEDGE OF KNOWN FISH 
The fishes already mentioned are com¬ 
mon in the waters adjacent to the Gulf 
Stream and are widely known, many 
miles from their habitat, for their game¬ 
ness and sporting qualities or for their 
food values; but now and then a new 
Gulf Stream species has been found 
which requires classification. 
Such a find was made in the case of 
Allison’s Tuna. This beautiful fish, of 
which but a few specimens have been 
caught, was taken at the edge of the Gulf 
Stream, off Miami Beach, Florida. It 
is proved to be a new species added to the 
American fauna—a species second to 
none of the other members of the family 
in coloration and interest. It reaches a 
large size and will in all probability be¬ 
come one of the fishes most sought for 
by anglers in the Florida waters. The 
newness of the fish will doubtless cause 
sportsmen to vie with one another in their 
efforts to land a specimen of record size. 
