THE RED SNAPPER. 
SNAPPERS AND RED-MOUTHS. 
The island’s edges are a-wing 
With trees that overbranch 
The sea, with song-birds welcoming 
The curlews to green change. 
And doves from half-closed lids espy 
The red and purple fish go by. 
Mrs. Browning, An Island. 
* | ^HE Snappers and the Grunts belong to Gill’s family, Pristipomatides. 
Jordan puts them with the Sparidce , or Sea-Breams, while Gunther in¬ 
cludes them in his much more comprehensive perch family. They are 
among the most wholesome and abundant of the food-fishes of tropical 
waters. There are numerous species in the West Indian fauna, but only a 
small number are sufficiently abundant on the coast of the United States 
to merit discussion in this book. 
The Snappers and Grunts are among the most highly colored of the 
tropical fishes—the tanagers and grosbeaks of the coral reefs. 
The Red Snapper, Lutjanns Blackfordii , although it has been for many 
years a favorite food-fish of the Gulf of Mexico and Eastern Florida, has 
but recently become known in Northern markets. About 1874 individuals 
of this species were occasionally seen in New York and Washington, and 
they began shortly after to come into notice in the cities of the Mississippi 
Valley. It was not even described and named until 1878, when a study 
