114 FISHES OF NORTH CAROLINA. 



Order ISOSPONDYLI. The Clupeoid and Salmonoid Fishes. 



This order, which comprises some of the commonest and most valuable of 

 our soft-rayed fishes, both marine and fresh-water, is divisible into two groups, 

 characterized by the absence or the presence of an adipose dorsal fin. The clupe- 

 oid, or herring-like, fishes do not possess this appendage, and constitute the fami- 

 lies Elopidse, Albulidae, Hiodontidse, Dorosomidse, Clupeidse, and Engraulidse; 

 the salmonoid, or trout-like, fishes have this fin, and include the family 

 Salmonidse. The families of herring-like fishes having representatives in North 

 Carolina maybe distinguished as follows: 



i. A bony plate between arms of the lower jaw Elopid^. 



u. No bony plate between the branches of the lower jaw. 

 a. Lateral line present. 



b. Mouth small; base of tongue and roof of mouth covered with paved teeth; saR-water 



fishes AlbulidjE. 



bb. Mouth large; teeth pointed, none forming a pavement; fresh-water fishes. 



HlODONTID^. 



aa. Lateral line absent. 



c. Mouth small, inferior, without teeth; stomach gizzard-like Dorosomidse. 



cc. Mouth of moderate size, terminal, teeth small; stomach not gizzard-like. 



Clupeid^. 

 ccc. Mouth very large, inferior, lower jaw very long and slender Engraulidse. 



Family ELOPID^. The Tarpons, Big-eyed Herrings, etc. 



Large coastal fishes of southern waters, herring-like in appearance, with 

 elongate body covered with large or small silvery scales, large terminal mouth, 

 maxillary long and extending backward beyond orbit, a bony plate between the 

 branches of the lower jaw, teeth in bands on jaws and also on tongue and roof of 

 mouth, eye provided with an adipose lid, branchial membranes not united and 

 free from the isthmus, gill-rakers long and slender, branchiostegals very numer- 

 ous, lateral line present, bases of dorsal and anal fins surrounded by scaly sheath, 

 a long accessory scale in axil of pectorals and ventrals, pyloric coeca numerous. 

 Two American genera, easily distinguished by the size of the scales and the length 

 of the last dorsal ray. 



Genus TARPON Jordan & Evermann. Tarpons or Tarpums. 



Very large fishes found along the Atlantic coast of America. The oblong 

 and compressed body is covered with huge scales; the lower jaw is strong and 

 projecting; the branchiostegals number 23; pseudobranchise are absent; lateral 

 line present and straight; the dorsal finis inserted behind ventrals and its last ray 

 is produced as a long filament; anal fin long, its last ray elongate. One species. 

 {Tarpon, the local name for the fish in Florida, probably of Indian origin.) 



101. TARPON ATLANTICUS (Cuvier & Valenciennes). 

 "Tarpon"; "Silver-fisli"; "King-fish". 



Megalops atlanticus Cuvier & Valenciennes, Histoire Naturelle des Poissons, xix, 398, 1846; Guadeloupe, San 



Domingo, Martinique, and Porto Rico. 

 Megalops thrissoides. Yarrow, 1877, 215; Beaufort. Jordan & Gilbert, 1879, .384; Beaufort. 

 Tarpon atlanticus, Jordan & Evermann, 189G, 409, pi. Ixvii, fig. 177. 



