PISHES OF THE GULF OP MAINE 91 



37. Tarpon {Tarpon ailanticus Cuvier and Valenciennes) 

 Jordan and Evermann, 1896-1900, p. 409, fig. 177. 



Description. — The tarpon is herringlike in general form and appearance, but it 

 is made easily recognizable by the fact that the last ray of the dorsal fin is greatly 

 elongated, its free portion being as long as or longer than the fin is high, and by the 

 presence of the bony interjugular plate mentioned above in the characterization of 

 the family to which it belongs. Furthermore, the anal fin of the tarpon is deeply 

 falcate; that of all Gulf of Maine herrings rhomboid in outline. The ventral fins, 

 which are situated under or behind the dorsal fin in herrings, alewives, shad, and 

 menhaden, are considerably in front of the dorsal fin in the tarpon, while the lower 

 jaw of the latter projects relatively further, its scales are relatively lai^er, and its 

 caudal fin is relatively wider. 



Fig. 38.— Tarpon ( Tarpon ailanticus) 



Color. — Bright silvery all over, the back darker than the belly. 



Size. — Tarpon grow to a length of 6 to S feet (longest recorded, 8 feet 2 inches). 



General range. — Tropical and subtropical coasts of America, from Brazil to Long 

 Island, casually to Cape Cod, and to Nova Scotia, where it has been recorded 

 twice — off Isaacs Harbor and in Harrigan Cove.*^ Its chief center of abundance 

 is in the West Indies, about Florida, and in the Gulf of Mexico. 



Occurrence in the Gulf of Maine. — ^A specimen 5J^ feet long, taken at Province- 

 town on July 25, 1915,'^ is the only record of the tarpon in the Gulf of Maine, which 

 it reaches only as an accidental straggler from the south. 



38. Round herring {Etrumeus teres DeKay) 



Stradine 



Jordan and Evermann, 1896-1900, p. 420. 



Description. — The most diagnostic feature of this fish among herrings is that its 

 belly is rounded and not sharp edged. It is, furthermore, the most elongate of our 

 hen-ings, its body being only one-sixth as deep as long, thus suggesting a smelt in 

 its general outline. Its dorsal fin, too, stands wholly in front of the ventrals instead 



>' Halkett, 1913, p. 45. 

 " Radcliffe, 1916, p. 3. 



