2 00 AMERICAN FISHES. 



South. Both of our common Pompanoes were described by Linnceus from 

 South Carolina, but had never been observed north of Cape Hatteras 

 until the summer of 1854, when Prof. Baird, at that time carrying on the 

 first of the ichthyological investigations which have since made his name 

 famous all the world over, discovered it near Great Egg Harbor. In his 

 Report on the Fishes of New Jersey, he states that he had seen them taken 

 by thousands in the sandy coves of the outer beach, near Beesley's Point. 

 These, however, were all rather small, scarcely exceeding a quarter to half 

 a pound in weight. In 1863 he obtained both species in Southern 

 Massachusetts, where in subsequent years they have frequently been 

 captured. 



" My first acquaintance with the Pompano in New England," writes 

 Prof. Baird, "was in 1863, during a residence at Wood's Holl, where I 

 not unfrequently caught young ones of a few inches in length. I was more 

 fortunate in the summer of 1871, which I also spent at Wood's Holl ; then 

 the Pompano was taken occasionally, especially in Capt. Spindle's pound, 

 and I received at different times as many as twenty or thirty, weighing 

 about one and one-half or two pounds each. Quite a number were caught 

 in Buzzard's Bay and Vineyard Sound in 1872." 



It is a fair question whether the Pompano has recently found its way 

 into northern waters, or whether its presence was unknown because nobody 

 had found the way to capture it. When Mitchill wrote on the fishes of 

 New York in 1842 he had access to a single specimen which had been 

 taken off Sandy Hook about the year 1820. 



I quote in full the observations of Mr. Stearns : 



"The common Pompano is abundant on the Gulf coast from the 

 INIississippi River to Key West, and, so far as I can learn, is rare beyond 

 this western limit until the Yucatan coast is reached, where it is common. 

 It is considered the choicest fish of the Gulf of Mexico, and has great 

 commercial demand, which is fully supplied but a few weeks in the year, 

 namely, when it arrives in spring. The Pompano is a migratory fish in 

 the Pensacola region, but I think its habits on the South Florida coast are 

 such that it cannot properly be so classed. 



" At Pensacola it comes in to the coast in spring and goes away from it 

 in fall, while in South Florida it is found throughout the year. In the 

 former section it appears on the coast in March in schools varying in num- 

 bers of individuals from fifty to three or four thousand, which continue to 

 ' run ' until the latter part of May, when it is su])posed that they are all 

 inside. Their movement is from the eastward, and they swim as near to 



