376 



SEVENTH REPORT OF THE FOREST, FISH AND GAME COMMISSION. 



92. Common Pompano ( Tracliinoius carolinus Linnseus). 



Lichia Carolina DeKay, N. Y. Fauna, Fislies, 114, pi. 10, fig. 30, 1842, off Sandy Hook. 

 Trachyiiotiis carolinus Jord.an & Gilbert, Bull. 16, U. S. Nat. Mus., 442, 1883. 

 Trachynotiis carolinus Bean, Bull. U. S. F. C, VII, 140, 1888 ; 19th Rept. N. Y. Comm. 



Fish., 254, pi. VIII, fig. II, 1890. 

 Trachinotus carolinus Bean, Bull. Am. Mus, Nat. Hist., IX, 363, 1897, 52d Ann. Rept. 



N. Y. State Mus., 104, 1900. 



Uniform bluLsh above, sides silver}-, golden in the adult, without bands, fins plain 

 silvery or dusky-. 



This fish has no other name on our cast coast except the southern variation of 

 Pompeynose. In Great South Bay the name Butter fish is applied to it because 

 it is confounded with the Poronoijis triacaiithus, to which the name properly 



^ 



COMMON POMPANO. 



belongs. Mitchill described it under the name Thornbacked Grunt, a name not now 

 in use. 



The Pompano ranges on our coast from Cape Cod to Florida, the adults rarely 

 or never coming into northern waters, but the young are taken in \'ariable numbers 

 every year. At Woods Hole they sometimes occur in considerable numbers, and 

 they have been taken in great abundance in Great Egg Harbor Bay, but not recently. 

 In Great South Bay, in 1890, only a single young individual was secured at Oak 

 Island Beach on the last day of September. It occurs occasionally also on the 

 Pacific coast. Dr. DeKay, in 1842, mentioned it as an exceedingly rare species on 

 the New York coast. His description was based on a specimen taken off Sandy 

 Hook more than 20 years before. In 1898 young specimens were found in moderate 

 numbers at Oak Island Beach, Great South Bay, September 14, and on the east side 



