188 



LO WER VEK TEBRA TES. 



Spanish name, caballa (a horse), and were borrowed by tlie American colonists fi-om 

 the prior Spanish settlers of America; horse cre\alle is a tautological name, embody- 

 ing the same idea in English and Spanish. It has a boldly rounded forehead, and 

 twenty-one rays in the second dorsal. The average weight is estimated at about 

 twelve pounds, although individuals may reach a weight of twenty pounds, or even 

 more. Moderate sized or small fishes are best for the table ; the larger ones being 

 almost tasteless, and having dark flesh. It is a voracious fish, readily caught by troll- 

 ing with a baited liook, and is even attracted by a rag attached to the hook ; in some 

 places, when the fish come close in to the shore, the favorite mode of killing them is 

 shooting with a rifle. 



Another species, closely related to the horse crevalle, is the Caranx pisquetiis, but 

 it is more slender, and has about twenty-four rays in the second dorsal fin. This 

 species ranges farther to the north in abundance than any other of the genus. It is 

 often called yellow mackerel (as about New York) or hard-tail. 



Related to the preceding Caraugidae, are species which have the body e.xtremely 

 compressed and thin, and rising very high upward in the dorsal region, and which 

 have the frontal outline as well as the back quite trenchant or sharp. The first dor- 

 sal fin is quite small and the spines very weak. Two well-determined sjiecies of this 

 group wander to the American coast, and are noticed and prized by many persons on 

 account of their unusual form. 



The Vomer setipinnis is oblong, the forehead very declivous, and the anterior rays 

 of the second and anal fins extend but little beyond the hinder ones ; the posterior 

 portion of the lateral line is covered with small jilates. It is known as the blunt- 

 nosed shiner, moon-fish, and horse-fish, and when 

 young, sometimes as the dollar, fish. The young 

 are quite different in shape from the old, and have 

 a sub-rotund contour. 



The Selene (/alius is still more compressed 

 and thinner than the Vomer, and the foremost rays 

 of the hinder dorsal and anal become very long 

 and give a falciform outline to the fins ; the lateral 

 line has no plates and is unarmed. Various pop- 

 ular names have been given, some of which are 

 quite happy as descriptive epithets ; such are, 

 FiG.ii2.-Komerse(;pHm<s,moon-fl8h,doilar-flsh. nioon-fish, alluding to the silvery sheen of its 

 body ; look-down, recalling the high position of the eyes, and horsehead, or horse-fish, 

 referring to the upward position of the eyes, and the consequently long extension in 

 front, characteristic of both the equine animal and the Selene. As may be noticed, 

 some of the same names have been applied to Selene as to Vomer. 



The pompanos, or at least the one that is properly entitled to the name, also be- 

 long to the family Carangidte, and constitute the genus Trachi/notas. This genus 

 may be distinguished by the more or less rhomboid form, the blunt nose, the reduc- 

 tion of the first dorsal fin to a few short spines unconnected by membrane, the elon- 

 gated anterior rays of the second dorsal and anal fins, and the absence of any plates 

 along the lateral line. The chief of the pom])anos is the TrachijnoUcs carolitius, 

 although several other species are found along the coast. About Charleston it is 

 known as the crevalle, and the true crevalle ( Caratix hippos) is there designated as the 

 horse-crevalle. The ordinary range of the pompano is northward to the coast of 



