FISHES OF THE GVIjF OP MAINE 



233 



88. Crevalle {Caranx hippos LinnjEus) 

 Jordan and Evermann, 189&-1900, p. 920. 



Description. — The presence of a well-developed first dorsal (8 spines) combined 

 with an anal (about 17 rays, preceded by 2 short detached spines) nearly as long 

 as the second dorsal (about 20 rays), but no detached finlets, separates the crevaUe 

 from all pompanos yet known from the Gulf except for the hardtail (p. 234), and 

 whereas the breast of the latter is scaly like the rest of the body, this region is largely 

 naked in the crevalle. Furthermore, the lower jaw of the latter is armed with a 

 pair of canine teeth, wanting in the hardtail, and the dorsal profile of its head is 

 different (compare fig. 108 with fig. 109). The long scimitar-shaped pectoral fins 

 also afford a convenient field mark to separate crevalle, hardtail, and yellowtail 

 (CJiloroscomhriis chrysurus) from pilotfish, rudderfish, and scads, in which the pecto- 

 rals are short and blunter. We need only call attention further to the deeply 

 forked tail, the row of keeled shields on either side of the caudal peduncle, the 

 flattened oblong form (only about two and one-half times as long as deep, but with 

 caudal peduncle as slender as that of a mackerel), and to the blunt head. 





Fig. 108. — Crevalle ( Caranx hippos) 



Color. — Described as olive above with golden sides and belly. There is a 

 large black blotch on the gill cover, a faint dark spot on the lower rays of the pec- 

 torals, and a black blotch in their axils. The edge of the second dorsal is black. 



Size. — Maximum weight about 20 pounds. 



General range. — Warm seas; abundant on both coasts of America; also occur- 

 ring in the East Indies. 



Commercial importance. — A famous game fish but not very much valued for 

 the table. 



Occurrence in the Gulf of Maine. — We know but one record of this southern 

 fish east or north of the southern angle of Cape Cod — a specimen picked up on 

 Lynn Beach on the shore of Massachusetts Bay during the summer of 1847. At 

 Woods Hole, however, it is a regular, if uncommon, summer visitor. 



