AMERICAN FISHES. 
116 
In the night they are much in the habit of running up the creeks in the 
salt meadows, where they are sometimes taken in great numbers by inter¬ 
posing between them and the sea, just before the period of high water. 
This experiment is not a very satisfactory one on the coast of New Jersey, 
in consequence of the abundance of crabs. The smaller fish become 
gilled in the net meshes, thus inviting the attacks of the crabs, which cut 
the nets to pieces, often ruining them in a single night.” 
When taken, the Squeteague makes a peculiar croaking, audible at a 
considerable distance ; and it is said that this is not unfrequently heard 
from a boat when passing over a school of them in the water beneath. 
The Sea Trout, or Deep-water Trout, of Charleston, described by Hol¬ 
brook under the name Otolithus thalassinUs , is without much question 
identical with the Northern Squeteague, although that author states that 
it differs from this fish entirely in its habits, since it is only found in the 
ocean and deep water, and never approaches the bays and inlets along the 
coast, while it is a larger animal. 
The few specimens which Holbrook saw were taken off Charleston Bar, 
about twenty miles from land and in about fifteen or twenty fathoms of 
water. The very peculiarities which he mentions are characteristic of 
the adult Squeteague. 
The Spotted Squeteague, Cy nos cion maculatum , is a species associated 
with the Squeteague in the waters off the coast of New Jersey and on the 
eastern shore of Virginia. It belongs to the same genus, but somewhat 
different, being characterized by the presence of well-defined dark spots. 
It becomes more abundant as we proceed southward, until off the coasts of 
North Carolina and Georgia, where it is one of the most abundant food- 
fishes. Owing to its shape and the presence of well-marked spots on the 
sides it is usually known on the southern coast as the “’Salmon” or 
“Spotted Trout,” and there are not wanting sportsmen in the Southern 
States who maintain with dogmatic earnestness the existence of a true 
Salmon Trout in the waters of their coast. -The early colonists of the 
Carolinas knew full well that the trout was a spotted fish, and that it was 
a most desirable fish withal; their warm streams had no genuine trout, 
and they could not carry in their untrained minds the image of the trout 
of England, so very different from Cynoscion. A much better name for it 
would be “Spotted Squeteague.” It is difficult, however, to bring 
about a change in a name which has been in use for several generations, 
