The New International Encyclopædia/Tautog

TAUTOG (Massachusetts Indian tautauog, pl. of taut, sheep's head, the Indian name of the fish). An American food-fish (Tautoga onitis) of the family (Labridæ) to which the wrasses of Europe belong. It is found from Maine to South Carolina, especially along the coast of Southern New England, on rocky and weedy bottoms, where it lives on mollusks, crustaceans, worms, sand-dollars, etc. It is abundant, is of considerable importance as a food-fish, and is locally known as ‘blackfish’ and ‘oyster-fish.’ It may attain an extreme weight of 22 pounds, with a length of three feet, but the average weight is about three pounds. The annual catch amounts to about 1,500,000 pounds, valued at $60,000. The tautogs spawn in May and June, and are very prolific, a large fish yielding more than a million eggs, which are small and buoyant, and hatch in four or five days. Consult Goode, Fishery Industries, sec. i. (Washington, 1884).