THE SHEEPSHEAD. 
THE SHEEPSHEAD. 
The pleasantest angling is to see the fish 
Cut with her golden oars the silver stream 
And greedily devour the treacherous bait. 
Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing, Act ///, Scene i . 
} I 'HE members of the family Sparidae , the “ Sea-Breams ” as they are 
often called, are especially characterized by their heavy, rather com¬ 
pressed bodies, their large heads, and strong jaws and teeth. In addition 
to one or more series of teeth in the front of the jaws, either conical or in- 
cisorial in shape, adapted for tearing their food from its lodging places, 
they always have a set of heavy, flat, grinding-teeth in the back of the 
mouth, which are often in double or triple rows on each side and are closely 
set, like the stones in a mosaic. Their use is to crush hard shells of mol- 
lusks and of barnacles, and other crustaceans. They are sedentary in 
their habits, living close to the bottom and browsing among the rocks 
and piles. Their colors are usually inconspicuous and their motions slug¬ 
gish. Representatives of this family are found throughout the world in 
temperate and tropical waters everywhere, and were numerous in the seas 
and lagoons of the Tertiary and Cretaceous periods. 
The most important representatives of the family in America, are the 
