CAVALLAS AND PAMPANOS
=THE Pampanos: Carangidæ.=—We next take up the great family of Pampanos,
_Carangidæ_, distinguished from the _Scombridæ_ as a whole by the
shorter, deeper body, the fewer and larger vertebræ, and by the loss of
the provision for swift movement in the open sea characteristic of the
mackerels and their immediate allies. A simple mark of the _Carangidæ_
is the presence of two separate spines in front of the anal fin. These
spines are joined to the fin in the young. All of the species undergo
considerable changes with age, and almost all are silvery in color with
metallic blue on the back.
Most like the true mackerel are the "leather-jackets," or "runners,"
forming the genera _Scomberoides_ and _Oligoplites_. _Scomberoides_ of
the Old World has the body scaly, long, slender, and fitted for swift
motion; _Scomberoides sancti-petri_ is a widely diffused species, and
others are found in Polynesia. In the New World genus _Oligoplites_ the
scales are reduced to linear ridges imbedded in the skin at different
angles. _Oligoplites saurus_ is a common dry and bony fish abounding in
the West Indies and ranging north in summer to Cape Cod.
_Naucrates ductor_, the pilot-fish, or romero, inhabits the open sea,
being taken—everywhere rarely—in Europe, the West Indies, Hawaii, and
Japan. It is marked by six black cross-bands. Its tail has a keel, and
it reaches a length of about two feet. In its development it undergoes
considerable change, its first dorsal fin being finally reduced to
disconnected spines.
The amber-fishes, forming the genus _Seriola_, are rather robust fishes,
with the anal fin much shorter than the soft dorsal. The sides of the
tail have a low, smooth keel. From a yellow streak obliquely across the
head in some species they receive their Spanish name of coronado. The
species are numerous, found in all warm seas, of fair quality as food,
and range in length from two to six feet.
[Illustration:
FIG. 213.—Pilot-fish, _Naucrates ductor_ (Linnæus). New Bedford, Mass.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 214.—Amber-fish, _Seriola lalandi_ (Cuv. & Val.). Family
_Carangidæ_. Wood's Hole.
]
_Seriola dorsalis_ is the noted yellow-tail of California, valued by
anglers for its game qualities. It comes to the Santa Barbara Islands in
early summer. _Seriola zonata_ is the rudder-fish, or shark's pilot,
common on our New England coast. The banded young, abundant off Cape
Cod, lose their marks with age. _Seriola hippos_ is the "samson-fish" of
Australia. _Seriola lalandi_ is the great amber-fish of the West Indies,
occasionally venturing farther northward, and _Seriola dumerili_ the
amber-jack, or coronado, of the Mediterranean. The deep-bodied medregal
(_Seriola fasciata_) is also taken in the West Indies, as is also the
high-finned _Seriola rivoliana_. Species very similar to these occur in
Hawaii and Japan, where they are known as _Ao_, or bluefishes. _Seriola
lata_ is fossil in the mountains of Tuscany.
The runner, _Elegatis bipinnulatus_, differs from _Seriola_ in having a
finlet behind dorsal and anal. It is found in almost all warm seas,
ranging north once in a while to Long Island.
The mackerel scads (_Decapterus_) have also a finlet, and on the
posterior part of the body the lateral line is shielded with bony
plates. In size and form these little fishes much resemble small
mackerel, and they are much valued as food wherever abundant.
_Decapterus punclatus_, known also as cigar-fish and round-robin,
frequently visits our Atlantic coasts from the West Indies, where it is
abundant. _Decapterus russelli_ is the _Maruaji_, highly valued in Japan
for its abundance, while _Decapterus muroadsi_ is the Japanese muroaji.
[Illustration:
FIG. 215.—The Saurel, _Trachurus trachurus_ (Linnæus). Newport, R. I.
]
_Megalaspis cordyla_ abounds in the East Indies and Polynesia. It has
many finlets, and the bony plates on the lateral line are developed to
an extraordinary degree.
In _Trachurus_ the finlets are lost and the bony plates extend the whole
length of the lateral line. The species known as saurel and wrongly
called horse-mackerel are closely related and some of them very widely
distributed.
_Trachurus trachurus_ common in Europe, extends to Japan where it is the
abundant maaji. _Trachurus mediterraneus_ is common in southern Europe
and _Trachurus symmetricus_ in California. _Trachurus picturatus_ of
Madeira is much the same as the last named, and there is much question
as to the right names and proper limits of all these species.
In _Trachurops_ the bony plates are lacking on the anterior half of the
body, and there is a peculiar nick and projection on the lower part of
the anterior edge of the shoulder-girdle. _Trachurops crumenophthalma_,
the goggler, or big-eyed scad, ranges widely in the open sea and at
Hawaii, as the _Akule_, is the most highly valued because most abundant
of the migratory fishes. At Samoa it is equally abundant, the name being
here _Atule_. _Trachurops torva_ is the meaji, or big-eyed scad, of the
Japanese, always abundant.
[Illustration:
FIG. 216.—Yellow Mackerel, _Carangus chrysos_ (Mitchill). Wood's Hole.
]
To _Caranx_, _Carangus_, and a number of related genera, characterized
by the bony armature on the narrow caudal peduncle, a host of species
may be referred. These fishes, known as cavallas, hard-tails, jacks,
etc., are broad-bodied, silvery or metallic black in color, and are
found in all warm seas. They usually move from the tropics northward in
the fall in search of food and are especially abundant on our Atlantic
coast, in Polynesia, and in Japan. About the Oceanic Islands they are
resident, these being their chosen spawning-grounds. In Hawaii and Samoa
they form a large part of the food-supply, the ulua (_Carangus
forsteri_) and the malauli (_Carangus melampygus_) being among the most
valuable food-fishes, large in size and excellent in flesh, unsurpassed
in fish chowders. Of the American species _Carangus chrysos_, called
yellow mackerel, is the most abundant, ranging from Cape Cod southward.
This is an elongate species of moderate size. The cavalla, or jiguagua,
_Carangus hippos_, known by the black spot on the opercle, with another
on the pectoral fin, is a widely distributed species and one of the
largest of the tribe. Another important food-fish is the horse-eye-jack,
or jurel, _Carangus latus_, which is very similar to the species called
ulua in the Pacific. The black jack, or tiñosa, of Cuba, _Carangus
funebris_, is said to be often poisonous. This is a very large species,
black in color, the sale of which has been long forbidden in the markets
of Havana. The young of different species of _Carangus_ are often found
taking refuge under the disk of jelly-fishes protected by the stinging
feelers. The species of the genus _Carangus_ have well-developed teeth.
In the restricted genus of _Caranx_ proper, the jaws are toothless.
_Caranx speciosus_, golden with dark cross-bands, is a large food-fish
of the Pacific. _Citula armata_ is another widely distributed species,
with some of the dorsal rays produced in long filaments.
In _Alectis ciliaris_, the cobbler-fish, or threadfish, the armature of
the tail is very slight and each fin has some of its rays drawn out into
long threads. In the young these are very much longer than the body, but
with age they wear off and grow shorter, while the body becomes more
elongate. In _Vomer_, _Selene_, and _Chloroscombrus_ the bony armature
of the tail, feeble in _Alectis_, by degrees entirely disappears.
_Vomer setipinnis_, the so-called moonfish, or jorobado, has the body
greatly elevated, compressed, and distorted, while the fins, growing
shorter with age, become finally very low. _Selene vomer_, the
horse-head-fish, or look-down (see Fig. 113, Vol. I), is similarly but
even more distorted. The fins, filamentous in the young, grow shorter
with age, as in _Vomer_ and _Alectis_. The skeleton in these fishes is
essentially like that of _Carangus_, the only difference lying in the
compression and distortion of the bones. _Chloroscombrus_ contains the
casabes, or bumpers, thin, dry, compressed fish, of little value as
food, the bony armature of the tail being wholly lost.
To the genus _Trachinotus_ belong the pampanos, broad-bodied, silvery
fishes, toothless when adult, the bodies covered with small scales and
with no bony plates.
The true pampano, _Trachinotus carolinus_, is one of the finest of all
food-fishes, ranking with the Spanish mackerel and to be cooked in the
same way, only by broiling. The flesh is white, firm, and flaky, with a
moderate amount of delicate oil. It has no especial interest to the
angler and it is not abundant enough to be of great commercial
importance, yet few fish bring or deserve to bring higher prices in the
markets of the epicures. The species is most common along our Gulf
coast, ranging northward along the Carolinas as far as Cape Cod.
[Illustration:
FIG. 217.—The Pampano, _Trachinotus carolinus_ (Linnæus). Wood's Hole.
]
Pampano in Spanish means the leaf of the grape, from the broad body of
the fish. The spelling "pompano" should therefore be discouraged.
The other pampanos, of which there are several in tropical America and
Asia, are little esteemed, the flesh being dry and relatively
flavorless. _Trachinotus palometa_, the gaff-topsail pampano, has very
high fins and its sides have four black bands like the marks of a grill.
The round pampano, _Trachinotus falcatus_, is common southward, as is
also the great pampano, _Trachinotus goodei_, which reaches a length of
three feet. _Trachinotus ovatus_, a large deep-bodied pampano, is common
in Polynesia and the East Indies. No pampanos are found in Europe, but a
related genus, _Lichia_, contains species which much resemble them, but
in which the body is more elongate and the mouth larger.
Numerous fossils are referred to the _Carangidæ_ with more or less
certainty. _Aipichthys pretiosus_ and other species occur in the
Cretaceous. These are deep-bodied fishes resembling _Seriola_, having
the falcate dorsal twice as long as the anal and the ventral ridge with
thickened scales. _Vomeropsis_ (_longispina elongata_, etc.), also from
the Eocene, with rounded caudal, the anterior dorsal rays greatly
elongate, and the supraoccipital crest highly developed, probably
constitutes with it a distinct family, _Vomeropsidæ_. Several species
referable to _Carangus_ are found in the Miocene. _Archæus glarisianus_,
resembling _Carangus_, but without scales so far as known, is found in
the Oligocene of Glarus; _Seriola prisca_ and other species of _Seriola_
occur in the Eocene; _Carangopsis brevis_, etc., allied to _Caranx_, but
with the lateral line unarmed, is recorded from the Eocene of France and
Italy.
_Ductor leptosomus_ from the Eocene of Monte Bolca resembles
_Naucrates_; _Trachinotus tenuiceps_ is recorded from Monte Bolca, and a
species of uncertain relationship, called _Pseudovomer minutus_, with
sixteen caudal vertebræ is taken from the Miocene of Licata.
=The Papagallos: Nematistiidæ.=—Very close to the _Carangidæ_, and
especially to the genus _Seriola_, is the small family of
_Nematistiidæ_, containing the papagallo, _Nematistius pectoralis_ of
the west coast of Mexico. This large and beautiful fish has the general
appearance of an amber-fish, but the dorsal spines are produced in long
filaments. The chief character of the family is found in the excessive
division of the rays of the pectoral fins.
=The Bluefishes: Cheilodipteridæ.=—Allied to the _Carangidæ_ is the
family of bluefishes (_Cheilodipteridæ_, or _Pomatomidæ_). The single
species _Cheilodipterus saltatrix_, or _Pomatomus saltatrix_, known as
the bluefish, is a large, swift, extremely voracious fish, common
throughout most of the warmer parts of the Atlantic, but very
irregularly distributed on the various coasts. Its distribution is
doubtless related to its food. It is more abundant on our Eastern coast
than anywhere else, and its chief food here is the menhaden. The
bluefish differs from the _Carangidæ_ mainly in its larger scales, and
in a slight serration of the bones of the head. Its flesh is tender and
easily torn. As a food-fish, rich, juicy, and delicate, it has few
superiors. Its maximum weight is from twelve to twenty pounds, but most
of those taken are much smaller. It is one of the most voracious of all
fish. Concerning this, Professor Baird observes:
[Illustration:
FIG. 218.—Bluefish, _Cheilodipterus saltatrix_ (L.). New York.
]
"There is no parallel in point of destructiveness to the bluefish among
the marine species on our coast, whatever may be the case among some of
the carnivorous fish of the South American waters. The bluefish has been
well likened to an animated chopping-machine the business of which is to
cut to pieces and otherwise destroy as many fish as possible in a given
space of time. All writers are unanimous in regard to the
destructiveness of the bluefish. Going in large schools in pursuit of
fish not much inferior to themselves in size, they move along like a
pack of hungry wolves, destroying everything before them. Their trail is
marked by fragments of fish and by the stain of blood in the sea, as,
where the fish is too large to be swallowed entire, the hinder portion
will be bitten off and the anterior part allowed to float away or sink.
It is even maintained with great earnestness that such is the gluttony
of the fish, that when the stomach becomes full the contents are
disgorged and then again filled. It is certain that it kills many more
fish than it requires for its own support.
"The youngest fish, equally with the older, perform this function of
destruction, and although they occasionally devour crabs, worms, etc.,
the bulk of their sustenance throughout the greater part of the year is
derived from other fish. Nothing is more common than to find a small
bluefish of six or eight inches in length under a school of minnows
making continual dashes and captures among them. The stomachs of the
bluefish of all sizes, with rare exceptions, are found loaded with the
other fish, sometimes to the number of thirty or forty, either entire or
in fragments.
"As already referred to, it must also be borne in mind that it is not
merely the small fry that are thus devoured, and which it is expected
will fall a prey to other animals, but that the food of the bluefish
consists very largely of individuals which have already passed a large
percentage of the chances against their reaching maturity, many of them,
indeed, having arrived at the period of spawning. To make the case more
clear, let us realize for a moment the number of bluefish that exist on
our coast in the summer season. As far as I can ascertain by the
statistics obtained at the fishing-stations on the New England coast, as
also from the records of the New York markets, kindly furnished by
Middleton & Carman, of the Fulton Market, the capture of bluefish from
New Jersey to Monomoy during the season amounts to no less than one
million individuals, averaging five or six pounds each. Those, however,
who have seen the bluefish in his native waters and realized the immense
numbers there existing will be quite willing to admit that probably not
one fish in a thousand is ever taken by man. If, therefore, we have an
actual capture of one million, we may allow one thousand millions as
occurring in the extent of our coasts referred to, even neglecting the
smaller ones, which, perhaps, should also be taken into account.
"An allowance of ten fish per day to each bluefish is not excessive,
according to the testimony elicited from the fishermen and substantiated
by the stomachs of those examined; this gives ten thousand millions of
fish destroyed per day. And as the period of the stay of the bluefish on
the New England coast is at least one hundred and twenty days, we have
in round numbers twelve hundred million millions of fish devoured in the
course of a season. Again, if each bluefish, averaging five pounds,
devours or destroys even half its own weight of other fish per day (and
I am not sure that the estimate of some witnesses of twice this weight
is not more nearly correct), we will have, during the same period, a
daily loss of twenty-five hundred million pounds, equal to three hundred
thousand millions for the season.
"This estimate applies to three or four year old fish of at least three
to five pounds in weight. We must, however, allow for those of smaller
size, and a hundred-fold or more in number, all engaged simultaneously
in the butchery referred to.
"We can scarcely conceive of a number so vast; and however much we may
diminish, within reason, the estimate of the number of bluefish and the
average of their capture, there still remains an appalling aggregate of
destruction. While the smallest bluefish feed upon the diminutive fry,
those of which we have taken account capture fish of large size, many of
them, if not capable of reproduction, being within at least one or two
years of that period.
"It is estimated by very good authority that of the spawn deposited by
any fish at a given time not more than 30 per cent. are hatched, and
that less than 10 per cent. attain an age when they are able to take
care of themselves. As their age increases the chances of reaching
maturity become greater and greater. It is among the small residuum of
this class that the agency of the bluefish is exercised and whatever
reasonable reduction may be made in our estimate, we cannot doubt that
they exert a material influence.
"The rate of growth of the bluefish is also an evidence of the immense
amount of food they must consume. The young fish which first appear
along the shores of Vineyard Sound, about the middle of August, are
about five inches in length. By the beginning of September, however,
they have reached six or seven inches, and on their reappearance in the
second year they measure about twelve or fifteen inches. After this they
increase in a still more rapid ratio. A fish which passes eastward from
Vineyard Sound in the spring weighing five pounds is represented,
according to the general impression, by the ten to fifteen-pound fish of
the autumn. If this be the fact, the fish of three or four pounds which
pass along the coast of North Carolina in March return to it in October
weighing ten to fifteen pounds.
"As already explained, the relationship of these fish to the other
inhabitants of the sea is that of an unmitigated butcher; and it is able
to contend successfully with any other species not superior to itself in
size. It is not known whether an entire school ever unite in an attack
upon a particular object of prey, as is said to be the case with the
ferocious fishes of the South American rivers; should they do so, no
animal, however large, could withstand their onslaught.
"They appear to eat anything that swims of suitable size—fish of all
kinds, but perhaps more especially the menhaden, which they seem to
follow along the coast, and which they attack with such ferocity as to
drive them on the shore, where they are sometimes piled up in windrows
to the depth of a foot or more."
=The Sergeant-fishes: Rachycentridæ.=—The _Rachycentridæ_, or
sergeant-fishes, are large, strong, swift, voracious shore fishes, with
large mouths and small teeth, ranging northward from the warm seas. The
dorsal spines are short and stout, separate from the fin, and the body
is almost cylindrical, somewhat like that of the pike.
[Illustration:
FIG. 219.—Sergeant-fish, _Rachycentron canadum_ (Linnæus). Virginia.
]
_Rachycentron canadum_, called cobia, crab-eater, snooks, or
sergeant-fish, reaches a length of about five feet. The last name is
supposed to allude to the black stripe along its side, like the stripe
on a sergeant's trousers. It is rather common in summer along our
Atlantic coast as far as Cape Cod, especially in Chesapeake Bay.
_Rachycentron pondicerrianum_, equally voracious, extends its summer
depredations as far as Japan. The more familiar name for these fishes,
_Elacate_, is of later date than _Rachycentron_.
Mr. Prime thus speaks of the crab-eater as a game-fish:
"In shape he may be roughly likened to the great northern pike, with a
similar head, flattened on the forehead. He is dark green on the back,
growing lighter on the sides, but the distinguishing characteristic is a
broad, dark collar over the neck, from which two black stripes or
straps, parting on the shoulders, extend, one on each side, to the tail.
He looks as if harnessed with a pair of traces, and his behavior on a
fly-rod is that of a wild horse. The first one that I struck, in the
brackish water of Hillsborough River at Tampa, gave me a hitherto
unknown sensation. The tremendous rush was not unfamiliar, but when the
fierce fellow took the top of the water and went along lashing it with
his tail, swift as a bullet, then descended, and with a short, sharp,
electric shock left the line to come home free, I was for an instant
confounded. It was all over in ten seconds. Nearly every fish that I
struck after this behaved in the same way, and after I had got 'the hang
of them' I took a great many."
=The Butter-fishes: Stromateidæ.=—The butter-fishes (_Stromateidæ_) form
a large group of small fishes with short, compressed bodies, smooth
scales, feeble spines, the vertebræ in increased number and especially
characterized by the presence of a series of tooth-like processes in the
œsophagus behind the pharyngeals. The ventral fins present in the young
are often lost in the process of development.
According to Mr. Regan, the pelvic bones are very loosely attached to
the shoulder-girdle as in the extinct genera _Platycormus_ and
_Homosoma_. This is perhaps a primitive feature, indicating the line of
descent of these fishes from berycoid forms.
We unite with the _Stromateidæ_ the groups or families of
_Centrolophidæ_ and _Nomeidæ_, knowing no characters by which to
separate them.
_Stromateus fiatola_, the fiatola of the Italian fishermen, is an
excellent food-fish of the Mediterranean. _Poronotus triacanthus_, the
harvest-fish, or dollar-fish, of our Atlantic coast, is a common little
silvery fish six to ten inches, as bright and almost as round as a
dollar. Its tender oily flesh has an excellent flavor. Very similar to
it is the poppy-fish (_Palometa simillima_) of the sandy shores of
California, miscalled the "California pampano," valued by the San
Francisco epicure, who pays large prices for it supposing it to be
pampano, although admitting that the pampano in New Orleans has firmer
flesh and better flavor. The harvest-fish, _Peprilus paru_, frequently
taken on our Atlantic coast, is known by its very high fins.
_Stromateoides argenteus_, a much larger fish than any of these, is a
very important species on the coasts of China.
[Illustration:
FIG. 220.—Harvest-fish, _Peprilus paru_ (Linnæus). Virginia.
]
_Psenopsis anomala_ takes the place of our butter-fishes in Japan, and
much resembles them in appearance as in flavor.
To the _Stromateidæ_ we also refer the black ruff of Europe,
_Centrolophus niger_, an interesting deep-sea fish rarely straying to
our coast. Allied to it is the black rudder-fish, _Palinurichthys
perciformis_, common on the Massachusetts coast, where it is of some
value as a food-fish. A specimen in a live-box once drifted to the coast
of Cornwall, where it was taken uninjured, though doubtless hungry.
Other species of ruff-and rudder-fish are recorded from various coasts.
Allied to the _Stromateidæ_ are numerous fossil forms. _Omosoma
sachelalmæ_ and other species occur in the Cretaceous at Mount Lebanon.
_Platycormus germanus_, with ctenoid scales resembling a berycoid, but
with the ventral rays I, 5, occurs in the Upper Cretaceous. Closely
related to this is _Berycopsis elegans_, with smoother scales, from the
English Chalk.
[Illustration:
FIG. 221.—Portuguese Man-of-war Fish, _Gobiomorus gronovii_. Family
_Stromateidæ_.
]
_Gobiomorus gronovii_ (usually called _Nomeus gronovii_), the Portuguese
man-of-war-fish, is a neat little fish about three inches long, common
in the Gulf of Mexico and the Gulf Stream, where it hides from its
enemies among the poisoned tentacles of the Portuguese man-of-war. Under
the Portuguese man-of-war and also in or under large jelly-fishes
several other species are found, notably _Carangus medusicola_ and
_Peprilus paru_. Many small species of _Psenes_, a related genus, also
abound in the warm currents from tropical seas.
=The Rag-fishes: Icosteidæ.=—Allied to the butter-fishes are the
deep-water _Icosteidæ_, fishes of soft, limp bodies as unresistant as a
wet rag, _Icosteus ænigmaticus_ of the California coast being known as
ragfish. _Schedophilus medusophagus_ feeds on medusæ and salpa, living
on the surface in the deep seas. Mr. Ogilby thus speaks of a specimen
taken in Ireland:
"It was the most delicate adult fish I ever handled; within twenty-four
hours after its capture the skin of the belly and the intestines fell
off when it was lifted, and it felt in the hand quite soft and
boneless." A related species (_S. heathi_) has been lately taken by Dr.
Charles H. Gilbert at Monterey in California.
The family of _Acrotidæ_ contains a single species of large size.
_Acrotus willoughbyi_, allied to _Icosteus_, but without ventral fins
and with the vertebræ very numerous. The type, five and one-quarter feet
long, was thrown by a storm on the coast of Washington, near the
Quinnault agency.
The family of _Zaproridæ_ contains also a single large species, _Zaprora
silenus_, without ventrals, but scaly and firm in substance. One
specimen 2½ feet long was taken at Nanaimo on Vancouver Island and a
smaller one at Victoria.
=The Pomfrets: Bramidæ.=—The _Bramidæ_ are broad-bodied fishes of the
open seas, covered with firm adherent scales. The flesh is firm and the
skeleton heavy, the hypercoracoid especially much dilated. Of the
various species the pomfret, or black bream (_Brama raii_), is the best
known and most widely diffused. It reaches a length of two to four feet
and is sooty black in color. It is not rare in Europe and has been
occasionally taken at Grand Bank off Newfoundland, at the Bermudas, off
the coast of Washington, on Santa Catalina Island, and in Japan. It is
an excellent food-fish, but is seldom seen unless driven ashore by
storms.
_Steinegeria rubescens_ of the Gulf of Mexico is a little-known deep-sea
fish allied to _Brama_, but placed by Jordan and Evermann in a distinct
family, _Steinegeriidæ_.
Closely related to the _Bramidæ_ is the small family of _Pteraclidæ_,
silvery fishes with large firm scales, living near the surface in the
ocean currents. In these fishes the ventral fins are placed well
forward, fairly to be called jugular, and the rays of the dorsal and
anal, all inarticulate or spine-like, are excessively prolonged. The
species, none of them well known, are referred to four genera—
_Pteraclis_, _Bentenia_, _Centropholis_, and _Velifer_. They are
occasionally taken in ocean currents, chiefly about Japan and Madeira.
Fossil forms more or less remotely allied to the _Bramidæ_ are recorded
from the Eocene and Miocene. Among these are _Acanthonemus_, and perhaps
_Pseudovomer_.
=The Dolphins: Coryphænidæ.=—The dolphins, or dorados (_Coryphænidæ_),
are large, swift sea-fishes, with elongate, compressed bodies, elevated
heads, sharp like the cut-water of a boat, and with the caudal fin very
strong. The long dorsal fin, elevated like a crest on the head, is
without spines. The high forehead characteristic of the dolphin is
developed only in the adult male. The flesh of the dolphin is valued as
food. Its colors, golden-blue with deep-blue spots, fade rapidly at
death, though the extent of this change has been much exaggerated.
Similar changes of color occur at death in most bright-colored fishes,
especially in those with thin scales. The common dolphin, or dorado
(_Coryphæna hippurus_), is found in all warm seas swimming near the
surface, as usual in predatory fishes, and reaches a length of about six
feet. The small dolphin, _Coryphæna equisetis_, rarely exceeds 2½ feet,
and is much more rare than the preceding, from which the smaller number
of dorsal rays (53 instead of 60) best distinguishes it. Young dolphins
of both species are elongate in form, the crest of the head not
elevated, the physiognomy thus appearing very different from that of the
adult. _Goniognathus coryphænoides_ is an extinct dolphin of the Eocene.
[Illustration:
FIG. 222.—Dolphin or Dorado, _Coryphæna hippurus_ Linnæus. New York.
]
The name dolphin, belonging properly to a group of small whales or
porpoises, the genus _Delphinus_, has been unfortunately used in
connection with this very different animal, which bears no resemblance
to the mammal of the same name.
Other mackerel-like families not closely related to these occur in the
warm seas. The _Leiognathidæ_ are small, silvery fishes of the East
Indies. _Leiognathus argentatus_ (_Equula_) is very common in the bays
of Japan, a small silvery fish of moderate value as food. _Gazza
minuta_, similar, with strong teeth, abounds farther south. _Leiognathus
fasciatum_ is common in Polynesia. A fossil species called _Parequula
albyi_ occurs in the Miocene of Licata.
The _Kurtidæ_ are small, short-bodied fishes of the Indian seas, with
some of the ribs immovably fixed between rings formed by the ossified
cover of the air-bladder and with the hypocoracoid obsolete. _Kurtus
indicus_ is the principal species.
=The Menidæ.=—Near the _Kurtidæ_ we may perhaps place the family of
_Menidæ_, of one species, _Mene maculata_, the moonfish of the open seas
of the East Indies and Japan. This is a small fish, about a foot long,
with the body very closely compressed, the fins low and the belly,
through the extension of the pelvic bone, a good deal more prominent
than the back. The ventral fins have the usual number of one spine and
five soft rays, a character which separates _Mene_ widely from
_Lampris_, which in some ways seems allied to it.
[Illustration:
FIG. 223.—_Mene maculata_ (Bloch & Schneider). Family Menidæ. Japan.
]
Another species of _Menidæ_ is the extinct _Gasteronemus rhombeus_ of
the Eocene of Monte Bolca. It has much the same form, with long pubic
bones. The very long ventral fins are, however, made of one spine and
one or two rays. A second species, _Gasteronemus oblongus_, is recorded
from the same rocks.
=The Pempheridæ.=—The _Pempheridæ_, "deep-water catalufas," or "magifi,"
are rather small deep-bodied fishes, reddish in color, with very short
dorsal, containing a few graduated spines, and with a very long anal
fin. These inhabit tropical seas at moderate depths. _Pempheris_ bears a
superficial resemblance to _Beryx_, but, according to Starks, this
resemblance is not borne out by the anatomy. _Pempheris mulleri_ and _P.
poeyi_ are found in the West Indies. _Pempheris otaitensis_ and _P.
mangula_ range through Polynesia.
[Illustration:
FIG. 224.—_Gasteronemus rhombeus_ Agassiz. (After Woodward.) Menidæ.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 225.—Catalufa de lo Alto, _Pempheris mulleri_ Poey. Havana.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 226.—_Pempheris nyctereutes_ Jordan & Evermann. Giran, Formosa.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 227.—The Louvar, _Luvarus imperialis_ Rafinesque. Family
Luvaridæ. (After Day.)
]
Very close to the _Pempheridæ_ is the small family of _Bathyclupeidæ_.
These are herring-like fishes, much compressed and with a duct to the
air-bladder. There are but one or two dorsal spines. The ventrals are of
one spine and five rays as in perch-like fishes, but placed behind the
pectoral fins. This feature, due to the shortening of the belly, is
regarded by Alcock, the discoverer, as a result of degeneration, and the
family was placed by him among the herrings. The persistent air-duct
excludes it from the _Percesoces_, the normally formed ventrals from the
_Berycoidei_. If we trust the indications of the skeleton, we must place
the family with _Pempheris_, near the scombroid fishes.
=Luvaridæ.=—Another singular family is the group of _Louvars_,
_Luvaridæ_. _Luvaris imperialis._ The single known species is a large,
plump, voracious fish, with the dorsal and anal rays all unbranched, and
the scales scurf-life over the smooth skin. It is frequently taken in
the Mediterranean, and was found on the island of Santa Catalina,
California, by Mr. C. F. Holden.
=The Square-tails: Tetragonuridæ.=—The _Tetragonuridæ_ are long-bodied
fishes of a plump or almost squarish form, covered with hard, firm, very
adherent scales. _Tetragonurus cuvieri_, the single species, called
square-tail, or escolar de natura, is a curious fish, looking as if
whittled out of wood, covered with a compact armor of bony scales, and
swimming very slowly in deep water. It is known from the open Atlantic
and Mediterranean and has been once taken at Wood's Hole in
Massachusetts. According to Mr. C. T. Regan the relations of this
eccentric fish are with the _Stromateidæ_ and _Bramidæ_, the skeleton
being essentially that of _Stromateus_, and Boulenger places both
_Tetragonurus_ and _Stromateus_ among the _Percesoces_.
=The Crested Bandfishes: Lophotidæ.=—The family of _Lophotidæ_ consists
of a few species of deep-sea fishes, band-shaped, naked, with the dorsal
of flexible spines beginning as a high crest on the elevated occiput.
The first spine is very strong. The ventrals are thoracic with the
normal number, I, 5, of fin-rays. _Lophotes cepedianus_, the crested
bandfish, is occasionally taken in the Mediterranean in rather deep
water. _Lophotes capellei_ is rarely taken in the deep waters of Japan.
It is thought that the _Lophotidæ_ may be related to the ribbon-fishes,
_Tæniosomi_, but on the whole they seem nearer to the highly modified
_Scombroidei_, the _Pteraclidæ_ for example.
In a natural arrangement, we should turn from the _Bramidæ_ to the
_Antigoniidæ_ and the _Ilarchidæ_, then passing over the series which
leads through _Chætodontidæ_ and _Teuthidæ_ to the _Plectognaths_. It
is, however, necessary to include here, alongside the mackerels, though
not closely related to them, the parallel series of perch-like fishes,
which at the end become also hopelessly entangled, through aberrant
forms, with other series of which the origin and relations are
imperfectly understood. As the relations of forms cannot be expressed in
a linear series, many pages must intervene before we can take up the
supposed line of development from the Scombroid fishes to those called
_Squamipinnes_.