SYSTEMATIC CATALOGUE OF FISHES. 



225 



December 13, 1890, Dr. W. C. Kendall found one stranded on the beach of 

 Hatteras Inlet. 



The butter-fish goes in schools, sometimes of large size, and when swimming 

 leisurely has a peculiar undulatory movement. Its maximum size is under a 

 foot. In North Carolina, as elsewhere, it is considered an excellent pan fish. 

 The local names are "butter-fish" and "butter-perch". The species is not 

 always distinguished from Peprilus alepidotus by the fishermen. 



Fig. 96. Butter-fish. Poronotus triacanthus. 



Commercially this fish is worth several thousand dollars annually to the 

 North Carolina fisherman. In 1897 a catch of 94,750 pounds sold for $1,758, 

 and in 1902 a catch of 83,218 pounds brought $1,357. 



Family CORYPH.ENID.E. The Dolphins. 



A family of large oceanic fishes found chiefly in warm seas, noted for their 

 beautiful, evanescent hues. The body is elongated and much compressed, 

 tapering gradually from head to tail ; the forehead is elevated owing to a crest on 

 the skull; the mouth is large, with cardiform teeth on jaws, vomer, and palatal 

 bones, and with villiform teeth in a patch on tongue; there is a single many- 

 rayed dorsal fin beginning over eye and extending nearly to caudal fin; the anal 

 fin is similar to dorsal and about half its length; the pectoral fins short and 

 small; the ventrals rather large; the caudal long and very deeply forked; a lateral 

 line is present, and the body is covered with small cycloid scales; the gill-mem- 

 branes are free from isthmus; the branchiostegals number 7; the pseudobranchiae 

 are absent; the pyloric coeca are numerous; the air-bladder is lacking. One 

 genus. 



Genus CORYPH.ENA Linnaeus. Dolphins. 



This genus, the characters of which have been given in the family definition, 

 contains probably only 2 species. Both are now recorded from North Carohna 



