FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 



375 



separated from the first dorsal only by a very 

 short space and extends back nearly to the base 

 of the caudal. Its anal fin is similar to its second 

 dorsal in shape but is shorter (about 28 rays), 

 originates about under the seventh or eighth ray 

 of the second dorsal, and is preceded by 2 short 

 stout spines. The ventrals are shorter than the 

 pectorals and situated under them. 



The tail of the scad is less deeply forked than 

 in most of the pompanos. In place of fleshy keels 

 on the caudal peduncle, the rear half of its lateral 

 line is armed with a series of 31 keeled shields, 

 largest on the peduncle, and all of them much 

 larger than the ordinary scales, a very noticeable 

 character. 



Color. — Described as slate blue or leaden above, 

 silvery below, with a small black spot on the 

 margin of the gill cover and with the axil of the 

 pectoral black. We have not seen it alive. 



Size. — Maximum length about 1 foot. 



General range. — Warm parts of the Atlantic, 

 rarely straying northward to the Gulf of Maine 

 and to Nova Scotia. 



Occurrence in the Gulf oj Maine. — A specimen 

 caught with smelt in Casco Bay, Maine, in Oc- 

 tober 1920, and another, 7 inches long, taken in 

 a trap at Richmond Island, off Cape Elizabeth in 

 September 1931, are the only Gulf of Maine 

 records, though it has been taken at Canso and 

 at Port Mouton Bay, Nova Scotia. 63 But being 

 common in the autumn about Woods Hole, where 

 as many as 10 barrels have been taken from one 



■ This last fish, a 2H-inch specimen, caught October 10, 1928, was recorded 

 by Leim (Proc. Nova Scotian Inst. Sci., vol. 17, No. 4, 1930, p. xlvi). 



trap haul, it would not be surprising to find it 

 north of Cape Cod any summer. 



Crevalle Caranx hippos (Linnaeus) 1766. 

 Jack 



Jordan and Evermann, 1896-1900, p. 920 



Description. — The presence of a well-developed 

 first dorsal fin (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 this 

 particular jack from all other pompanos known 

 from the Gulf, except the goggle-eyed scad (p. 377) , 

 hardtail (p. 376), and the saurel (p. 377). Its 

 arched lateral line and the presence of (usually) 

 two pairs of small but plainly visible canine teeth 

 in the lower jaw distinguish it from the goggle eye; 

 its naked breast and its canine teeth from the 

 hardtail and saurel. The dorsal profile, too, of 

 the head of the crevalle (fig. 200) is characteristic, 

 and the long scimitar-shaped pectoral fins are a 

 convenient field mark to separate it and other 

 members of its immediate tribe, 64 from the pilot- 

 fish, rudderfish, and mackerel scad, in which the 

 pectorals are short and blunter. We need only 

 call attention further to its deeply forked tail; to 

 the row of keeled shields along either side of its 

 caudal peduncle ; to its flattened oblong form (body 



« The yellow tall (Chloroscombrut chrysurut), another species in this group 

 straggles northward at times and, sometime, may be taken within the Oulf 

 of Maine. It may bo d istinguished from the crevalle, hardtail, saurel, and big- 

 oyed scad by the fact that its lateral line is wholly unarmed, whereas in these 

 species it is armed with bony plates, along part of its length at least. 



Figure 200. — Crevalle, or Jack {Caranx kippos), Woods Hole, Mass. From Goode. Drawing by H. L. Todd. 



