378 



FISHERY BULLETIN OF THE FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



Figure 203. — Goggle-eyed scad (Trachurops crutnenophthalmus), Woods Hole. From Goode. Drawing by H. L. Todd. 



its anal fin has 1 spine and 20 to 23 rays, and is 

 preceded by 2 stout detached spines. Its caudal 

 is forked. Its ventrals originate a little behind the 

 pectorals which reach nearly or quite as far back 

 as its vent. Its entire breast is scaly, as are parts 

 of its head. 



Color. — Bluish above, silvery below. The fins, 

 snout, and tip of the lower jaw have dusky 

 markings. 



Size. — Grows to a length of about 2 feet. 



General range. — Cosmopolitan in warm seas, 

 straying as far northward on our Atlantic Coast as 

 Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. 74 



Occurrence in the Gulf of Maine. — The only 

 positive records of this species in our Gulf are of 

 one 5/4 inches long taken in a trap at Provincetown 

 on August 27, 1930; 75 a second 8 miles off Chatham, 

 Cape Cod; 76 and a third from Sandwich, on Cape 

 Cod Bay, in the summer of 1950. 77 It may be 

 expected to round Cape Cod from time to time, 

 for it is taken in summer and fall as far northward 

 and eastward as Woods Hole. 



Moonfish Vomer setapinnis (Mitchill) 1815 



Shiner; Horsefish; Bluntnose; Dollarfish 



Jordan and Evermann, 1896-1900, p. 934. 



Description. — The very deep, thin, sharp-edged 

 body of the moonfish (adults are scarcely twice as 



" Beported from Canso by Comish, Contrib. Canadian Biol. (1903-1905) 

 1907, p. 85. A. H. Leim advises us tbat a specimen 145 mm. long was taken 

 off Centre East Pubnico, Nova Scotia, September 12, 1951. 



» Firth, Bull. 61 Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., 1931, p. 11. 



'• MacCoy, Bull. 70, Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., 1934, p. 6. 



" This specimen was received from Capt. Benjamin Morrow and is now in 

 the Museum of Compaiative Zoology. 



long as deep, and young fry even deeper, rela- 

 tively), tapering to a slender caudal peduncle, and 

 the concave upper anterior profile of its head, are 

 enough to separate it at a glance from pilotfish, 

 scad, crevalle, hardtail, saurel, or goggle eye; its 

 very low dorsal and anal fins distinguish it from the 

 lookdown (p. 379), which is of something the same 

 shape (cf. fig. 204 with fig. 205). Its minute 

 ventral fins, soft dorsal fin and anal fin which are 

 nearly even in height from end to end, separate it 

 from the threadfin (p. 381), and from the Cuban 

 jack (Hynnis cubensis), now thought to be the 

 adult of the threadfin (p. 381). 



The first dorsal of the adult moonfish is reduced 

 to 8 very short, inconspicuous, detached spines, 

 but the first two of these are prolonged and fila- 

 mentous in young fry. Its second dorsal fin (21 

 to 23 rays) and its anal fin (17 to 19 rays) are about 

 equal in length, both of them low and tapering 

 very slightly from front to rear. In very small 

 fish the second to fourth rays of the second dorsal 

 fin are more or less prolonged, and the anal fin is 

 preceded by 3 or 4 short detached spines which 

 are not to be seen in the adult. The ventrals are 

 so small that they are likely to be overlooked 

 except in young fry, in which the ventral rays are 

 more or less filamentous as are the dorsal spines. 

 The pectorals are scythe shaped. The scales along 

 the lateral line are not large enough to be con- 

 spicuous, and the teeth are very small. There 

 are no detached finlets, dorsal or anal. 



Color. — Bluish green above, bright silvery on 

 the sides. The second dorsal fin is plain pale 

 greyish, sometimes light yellow at its base; the 



