'^^. 



THE CAVALLY. 



THE CAVALLY AND OTHER CARANGOIDS. 



Swift speed crevalle over that watery plain, 



Swift over Indian River's broad expanse. 

 Swift where the ripples boil with finny hosts, 



Bright glittering they glance ; 

 And when the angler's spoon is over them cast. 



How fierce, how vigorous the fight for life ! 

 Now in the deeps they plunge, now leap in air 



Till end's the unequal strife. 



Isaac McLellan. 



nPHE members of the family Carangida;, which is closely allied to the 

 mackerel family, are distinguished chiefly by the form of the mouth, 

 and by the fact that they have uniformly but twenty-four vertebrce, ten 

 abdominal and fourteen caudal, while the mackerel have uniformly more, 

 both abdominal and caudal. They are carnivorous fishes, abounding 

 everywhere in temperate and tro])ical seas. On our own eastern coast 

 there are at least twenty-five species, all of them eatable, but none of them 

 of much importance except Pompanoes. On the California coast there are 

 two or three species of this family, of small commercial importance. 



Caranx hippos, the Cavally of the Gulf of Mexico and Eastern 

 Florida — the "Horse Crevalle" of South Carolina — occurs abundantly 

 on our Southern coast, and has been recorded by Prof. Poey from Cul)a 

 and by Cope from St. Christopher and St. Croix. It is generally dis- 

 tributed throughout the West Indies, and is found along the Pacific coast 

 the Gulf of California to Panama. The S])ecies was originally described 



