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AMERICAN FISHES . 
inches in length, until there is a general movement towards the sea. It is 
believed that the adult fish spawn in the bays, but the only evidence to 
support that belief is that they come inside with spawn, go away with it„ 
and that very young fish are found there. In October and November 
small Hard-tails are caught in Santa Rosa Sound, measuring five and six 
inches in length. 
“The smallest of the spring run are nine or ten inches long. Adult fish 
measure twelve, fourteen, and fifteen inches in length, very rarely more 
than the last. During the months of October and November, Hard-tails 
leave the bays, formed in small schools and swimming below the surface 
in deep water. The only time that they can then be seen is when they 
cross the ‘ bars ’ at the inlet or sandy shoals in the bay. A few stragglers 
remain in Pensacola Bay and Santa Rosa Sound all winter, which are 
taken now and then with hook and line. I have found them in abundance 
in winter on the South Florida coast, where, owing to less variable con¬ 
ditions of the water, their habits are decidedly different. The Hard-tail 
is a most voracious fish, waging active war upon the schools of small fish. 
Its movements are rapid, and sometimes in its eagerness it will jump high 
out of the water. It has its enemies also, for I have seen whole schools 
driven ashore by the sharks and porpoises ; a great many are destroyed in 
this way. Hard-tails are caught for the market in seines.” 
The occurrence of the Cuba Jurel, Caranx latus, on our coast was first 
announced by a drawing made by Mr. J. H. Richard of a fish taken in 
South Carolina. Upon this drawing Holbrook founded his species, C . 
Richardii . Caranx latus occurs abundantly throughout the West Indies 
and along the Gulf coast of the United States, and it is by no means im¬ 
possible that stragglers should have found their way to Charleston. 
According to Prof. Poey, this fish has been prohibited from sale in Cuba 
from time immemorial, and with good reason, since many disastrous cases 
of sickness have followed its use as food. This species occurs, according 
to Jordan, from the Gulf of California to Panama, and also in the East 
Indies. 
The Round Robin, Decapterus punctatus , called at Pensacola, the 
“ Cigar-fish,” occurs in the Bermudas, where it is an important food-fish 
it occurs also in the West Indies and along the coast of the United States 
north as far as Woods Holl. 
A closely related species, Decapterus macarellus , is found also in the 
