FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 



423 



game fish which has been the subject of many 

 accounts from the angler's standpoint. 



Spot Leiostomus xanthurus Lac£pede 1802 

 Lafayette 

 Jordan and Evermann, 1896-1900, p. 1458. 



Description. — The spot agrees closely with the 

 weakfish in the arrangement and general shapes 

 and relative sizes of its fins, and in lacking chin 

 barbels. But it is a much deeper fish relatively 

 (body about one-third as high as it is long, meas- 

 ured to base of tail fin), with blunt snout instead 

 of pointed; it has no large canine teeth; its tail 

 fin is more forked; and it is marked on either side 

 with a conspicuous black spot close behind the 

 upper corner of each gill opening. 



The forward (spiny) subdivision of the dorsal 

 fin, of 10 spines, is triangular, with rounded apex; 

 the posterior part, of one short spine and 30-34 

 soft rays, is about one-half as high vertically as 

 the spiny part. The caudal fin is moderately 

 concave. The anal fin of two short spines and 

 12 or 13 soft rays, has a somewhat concave mar- 

 gin, and the pectorals are pointed. 



Color.— Bluish gray above with golden reflec- 

 tions, silvery below. Medium-sized fish are 

 marked on each side with 12-15 oblique yellowish 

 cross bars °° dipping obliquely forward, but these 



» Dusky on preserved specimens. 



fade with age. And there is a conspicuous black 

 spot close behind the upper corner of each gill 

 opening. The fins are partly yellowish, partly 

 dusky. 



Size. — -The spot grows to a length of about 13 

 to 14 inches and to a weight of 1 pound 6 ounces.' 1 

 But adults average only about 10 to 10K inches 

 long, and few weigh more than three-quarters of 

 a pound. 



General range. — Inshore waters from Texas 92 

 to southern New England, and recorded from 

 Massachusetts Bay as a stray. 



Occurrence in the Gulf of Maine. — The spot is 

 plentiful in some years as far north as New York, 

 while young ones are described as common in 

 autumn about Woods Hole. But its normal 

 range is bounded so sharply by Cape Cod that it 

 has been reported only once from the Gulf of 

 Maine; a single specimen, taken in Massachu- 

 setts Bay, November 1936. 93 



Kingfish Menticirrhus samtilis 

 (Bloch and Schneider) 1801 

 King Whiting; Minkfish; Whiting 

 Jordan and Evermann, 1896-1900, p. 1475. 



n These were the longest of many measured in Chesapeake Bay by Hilde- 

 brand and Sehroeder (Bull. U. S. Bureau of Fisheries, vol. 43, Part 1, 1028, 

 p. 272). The maximum length previously recorded was 1194 inches (Nichols 

 and Breder, Zoologira, New York Zool. Soc , vol. 9, 1927, p. 95). 



" Once reported doubtfully from Martinque. 



» Reported by Qoffln, Copeia 1937, No. 4, p. 236. 



Figure 218. — Spot (Leiostomus xanthurus), Rhode Island. From Goode. Drawing by H. L. Todd. 



