414 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



The pilotfish is pelagic in all tropical and temperate seas; it 

 is occasionally taken on our coast as far north as Provincetown 

 Mass., but is not at all common. It was reported at Woods Hole 

 Mass, by Prof. Baird in 1871. The young are developed in the 

 open ocean and are so different in appearance from the adult 

 that they have been described as a distinct genus. The fish has 



no economic value. 



Genus SERIOLA Cuvier 



Body oblong, moderately compressed, not elevated; occiput 

 and breast not trenchant; head usually more or less conical, 

 not very blunt; mouth comparatively large, with broad bands of 

 villiform teeth on both jaws, tongue, vomer and palatines; a 

 broad, strong, supplemental maxillary bone; premaxillaries pro- 

 tractile; scales small; lateral line slightly arched, forming a keel 

 on the caudal peduncle, not armed w r ith bony plates; sides of 

 head with small scales; first dorsal with about seven low spines, 

 connected by membrane; second dorsal very long, elevated in 

 front; anal similar to the soft dorsal but not nearly so long, 

 shorter than the abdomen, preceded by two very small free 

 spines, which disappear in old fishes; no finlets; ventral fins 

 very long; pectorals short and broad; gill rakers moderate. 

 Species of moderate or large size. 



207 Seriola zonata (Mitchill) 



Banded Rudder Fish 



Scotnbcr zonattis MITCHILL, Trans. Lit. & Phil. Soc. N. Y. I, 427, 1815, New 



York Bay. 

 SeritiJa zonata CITVIEB & VALENCIENNES, Hist. Nat. Poiss. IX, 213, 1833; 



DE KAY, X. Y. Fauna, Fishes, 128, pi. 9, fig. 2G, 1S42, Long Island 



Sound; GUXTIIER. Cat. Fish. Brit. Mus. II, 465, 1860; STORES, Hist. 



Fish. Mass. 79, pi. XV, fig. 5, 1867; JORDAN & GILBERT, Bull. 16, U. S. 



Nat. Mus. 445, 1883; GOODE & BEAN, Bull. Essex Inst. XI, 16, 1879; 



BEAN, Bull. U. S. F. C. VII, 139, 1888; JORDAN & EVERMANN, Bull. 47, 



U. S. Nat. Mus. 902, 1896; BEAN, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist IX, 360, 



1897; SMITH, Bull. F. S. F. C. XVII, 97. 1898. 



is -oiiatits GILL, Froc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila. 442, 1862. 



Body fusiform, compressed, moderately deep, its greatest 

 depth one third of total length without caudal, its width less 

 than one half the depth and equal to postorbital length of head; 

 least depth of caudal peduncle equals one half length of snout; 



