382 



FISHERY BULLETIN OF THE FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



Figure 207. — Threadfin (Alectis crinitus), from 

 Florida specimen mounted by Al. Pfleuger and 

 another small specimen from Newport, Rhode 

 Island. Drawing by H. B. Bigelow. 



Occurrence in the Gulf of Maine. — The only 

 records of this tropical fish for the Gulf of Maine 

 are of one about '3% inches (85 mm.) long taken in 

 a trap at Sagamore, on the southern shore of Cape 



Cod Bay, September 1, 1937, and another taken 

 in a trap at North Truro, Mass., August 16, 1951. 

 They may have come through the Cape Cod 

 Canal as suggested by Smith. 83 



THE BLUEFISHES. FAMILY POMATOMIDAE 



The bluefish (the only member of its family) 

 resembles the pompano family in the general 

 structure and arrangement of its fins, there being 

 two dorsals, the first spiny and the second soft, 

 with the ventrals well forward under the pectorals. 

 But it lacks the free spines in front of the anal fin 

 which are characteristic of most pompanos; its 

 caudal peduncle is deeper; its tail is less deeply 

 forked; and its teeth are much larger. It bears 

 a superficial resemblance to certain of the weak- 



fish family (p. 417) in its general body form and in 

 the arrangement of its fins. But it is readily 

 separable from any of the latter by the fact that 

 its anal fin is nearly as long as its soft (second) 

 dorsal, and from the sea-bass family in that its 

 first (spiny) dorsal is much lower than the second. 

 Most American ichthyologists look upon the blue- 

 fish family as closely allied to the pompanos, but 



" Copeia, 1938, p. 146. 



