FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 



371 



high as it is thick) is more flattened sidewise than 

 that of the pilot fish; its caudal peduncle is much 

 deeper, and has no lateral keels; its dorsal fin is 

 considerably longer than that of the pilot fish, 

 and there are no detached spines in front of its 

 dorsal fin. The single dorsal fin of 3 flexible 

 spines entirely covered over by skin and 35-38 

 soft rays reaches from over the pectoral fin to the 

 caudal peduncle; the anal (3 spines concealed by 

 skin and 20-22 soft rays) originates about under 

 the midpoint of the dorsal and runs equally far 

 back; both dorsal and anal fins are evenly gradu- 

 ated in outline from front to rear; and both are 

 fleshy and scaly along their bases. Its ventral 

 fins are about under the pectorals; pectorals and 

 anals are both small; and the caudal is moderately 

 forked. 



Color. — Those we have seen (after a few weeks 

 preservation in alcohol) are dark leaden-brown on 

 back and sides, with the margins of the scales 

 darkest, in so fine a pattern (because of the small 

 size of the scales) that the general effect is sooty; 

 the fins are darker, even, than the back; and the 

 belly only a little paler. Other specimens have 

 been described a as brownish pink all over, or 



brown, darkest above, some with irregular and 

 obscure markings, either yellowish or dark blue. 



Size. — Grows to about 2 feet in length. 



General range. — Oceanic, and widespread in low 

 and mid latitudes in the eastern North Atlantic; 

 Madeira, the Azores, and the coasts of Spain north 

 to the entrance to the English Channel, the Celtic 

 Sea and southern Norway; also in the Mediter- 

 ranean; and reported as a stray from Massachu- 

 setts and from Georges Bank. 



Occurrence in the Gulf of Maine. — One specimen 

 of this wanderer from Europe, about 12% inches 

 long, was taken in a trap at North Truro, on Cape 

 Cod Bay, September 6, 1890; u a second of 21 H 

 inches was brought in from the northern edge of 

 Georges Bank by the trawler Thomas Whalen in 

 September 1936;" and a third of about 13 inches 

 (330 mm.) to the fork of the tail was taken in a 

 trap at North Truro June 23, 1951. 4S 



Another about 9 inches long was taken in 1888 4 * 

 at Dennis, Mass. But it is not known whether 

 this record should be credited to our Gulf or to the 

 southern coast of Massachusetts, since that town- 

 ship fronts both on Cape Cod Bay and on Nan- 

 tucket Sound. 



THE POMPANOS AND JACKS. FAMILY CARANGIDAE 



The pompanos are allied to the mackerels; both 

 have deeply forked tails, very slender caudal ped- 

 uncles, and ventrals situated below the pectorals. 

 And, mackerel-like, most of them have two dorsal 

 fins, the first hard-spined, the second soft-rayed. 

 But they are readily separable from the mackerels 

 by the fact that their first (spiny) dorsal, if they 

 have one, is much shorter than the second (soft 

 rayed) while it may be reduced to a series of very 

 short spines, or even lost altogether in old age. 

 And, except for the leather jacket, they either 

 lack the dorsal and anal finlets so characteristic 



of the mackerel tribe, or have only one of each at 

 most. They differ further from the mackerels in 

 the number of vertebrae (only 24 as against up- 

 ward of 30), and in that their premaxillary bones 

 (fixed in the mackerels) are protractile (except in 

 adult Oligoplites) , while their anal fin is preceded 

 by two free spines that may either take the form 

 of a permanent finlet or may be lost in old age. 

 Warm seas support a host of species, but none of 

 them is more than an accidental stray to the Gulf 

 of Maine. 



KEY TO GULF OF MAINE POMPANOS 



1. Rear parts of soft dorsal fin, from 7th ray backward, and of anal fin from 6th ray backward are so deeply indented 



between every two rays as to form a series of 12 to 14 nearly separate low finlets Leather jacket, p. 380 



Rear parts of soft dorsal and of anal fins even-edged, not as series of finlets 2 



2. Body very much flattened, sidewise; nearly or quite half as deep as it is long to base of caudal fin 3 



Body moderately stout, less than two-fifths as deep as it is long to base of caudal fin 6 



3. Back and belly rounded; pectoral fins reach not more than one-third the way back toward the base of the caudal 



fin True pompanos (genus Trachinotus) i7 



Back and belly sharp-edged; pectoral fins reach at least half-way back toward the base of the caudal fin. 4 



« Day, Fishes Great Britain, 1880-1884, vol. 1, p. 110. 

 « Reported by Bean, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. 21, 1898, p. 639 and now 

 in the U. S. National Museum. 

 « Reported by Bigelow and Schroeder, Copeia, 1937, p. 61. 



« Received through the kindness of John Worthington of the Pond Village 

 Cold Storage Co. 

 « Ooode and Bean, Smithsonian Contrib. Knowl., vol. 30, 1895, p. 214. 

 " None of these southern fish have yet been reported within our Gulf. 



