The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Tautog

TAUTOG, a marine fish (Tautoga onitis) of the Atlantic Coast of the United States, related to the dinners and wrasses of the family Labridæ, and locally known as blackfish or oysterfish. It is from two to three feet in length, when large, blackish or greenish in color, the young with about three pairs of obscure dark bars; chin white; eye greenish. It abounds about weedy rocks, oyster reefs, etc near shore, feeding on mollusks, barnacles, etc., and is easily caught. It is one of the best table-fishes of the American coast. The annual catch off the New England coast is about 750 tons.