5 ° 
AMERICAN FISHES. 
A very large Jew-fish will follow and finally swallow a hooked firh, 
usually a red snapper, with hooks, lead, line and all. If the line does not 
then break the fish may be hauled in with gaffs. The Jew-fish attains an 
enormous size, and specimens weighing from eighty to one hundred 
pounds have been caught. The smaller fish are quite choice, but large 
ones are too coarse and tough to be salable. 
There is another fish which is also called “Jew-fish,” or “Warsaw,” 
and “Black Grouper,” of which only enormously large specimens have 
been obtained, and which is entered upon our catalogues under the name 
Promicrops guasa. It is a fair question whether this great fish be not the 
adult of the common Black Grouper or some closely allied species, the ap¬ 
pearance of which has become somewhat changed with age. A large 
specimen, weighing about three hundred pounds, was taken near the St. 
John’s bar in March or April, 1874, by James Arnold. It was shipped by 
Mr. Hudson, a fish dealer in Savannah, to Mr. Blackford, who presented 
it to the Smithsonian Institution. A fine cast of this specimen graces the 
Fisheries Hall of the National Museum. Professor Poey, by whom the 
species was named, states that in Cuba it attains to the weight of 
six hundred pounds. An old Connecticut fisherman, who was for many 
years engaged in the Savannah market fishery, states that the Havana 
smacks often catch Jew-fish. They are so voracious that when put into the 
well with the Groupers they would do much damage. The fishermen have 
found it necessary therefore to sew their jaws together before placing 
them with other fish. 
The Spotted Hind of the Gulf of Mexico, Epineplielus Drummond-Hayi, 
has been found only in the Gulf of Mexico and at the Bermudas. It 
was observed at the Bermudas in 1851 by Col. H. M. Drummond-Hay, 
of the British army. It is there called “John Paw.” Specimens were 
sent to the National Museum in 1876 and 1877, by Mr. Blackford 
and Mr. Stearns. It is one of the many important species which have 
been brought to notice by the labors of the United States Fish Commission. 
Although it is an excellent food-fish, it is, even now, not well appreciated. 
Mr. Stearns records the following facts concerning its habits: “The 
Spotted Hind is common in company with the Grouper and Jew-fish, and 
is most abundant in South Florida about the reefs. Off Pensacola it lives 
in the deep fishing grounds, in seventeen, nineteen and twenty-two 
fathoms. It swims close to the bottom, and is of sluggish movements. I 
