SYSTEMATIC CATALOGUE OF FISHES. 



303 



Diagnosis. — Dorsal and ventral outlines similar, depth .5 length; head sliort, a little less 

 than .25 length, longer and more pointed in young; 4 incisors in each jaw, directed obliquely 

 forward, 3 series of molars in upper jaw, 2 in lower jaw; eye .25 head, behind posterior end of 

 maxillary; gill-rakers on first arch about 20, very short, less than .25 diameter of eye; scales 

 in lateral series 55 to 57, in transverse series 20 to 22; dorsal rays xii,14, third to fifth spines 

 longest, less than half length of head; anal rays in, 13, second sj^ine largest; caudal rather deeply 

 forked; pectorals pointed, reaching about as far as anal origin. Color: back dull blue, sides 

 and below silvery; a conspicuous black blotch or band on each side of anterior part of caudal 

 peduncle; opercular margin black; base of pectoral black; back and side of young with about 

 5 very narrow vertical dark stripes, with about same number of short intermediate stripes on 

 back. (Named for John Edwards Holbrook, author of Ichthyology of South Carolina.) 



■'^^s^a 



Fig. 136. Spot-tailed Pin-fish. Diplodus holbrookii. 



This species is known from the coast between Cape Hatteras and Cedar 

 Keys. Jordan & Gilbert, writing of it in 1879, said: 



Extremely abundant everywhere along the Beaufort shore. This species was first 

 described by Dr. Bean during the past year. That so strongly marked and so abundant a 

 species should have so long escaped notice is very remarkable. Its color is bright silvery, with 

 a large black blotch on the upper part of the caudal peduncle, which is very conspicuous while 

 the fish is in the water. It reaches but a small size, and is not at Beaufort used as food. The 

 fishermen call it pin-fish, and as such it is beneath their notice. Most of the fishermen, indeed, 

 did not distinguish it from Lagodon rhomhoides. 



The vernacular names for this fish in the Beaufort region and about Bogue 

 Inlet are "pin-fish" and "spot-tailed pin-fish". The maximum length of the 

 species is 10 about inches. In 1871 Dr. Coues collected at Beaufort a specimen 

 of this species now in the U. S. National Museum, but failed to recognize it as 

 distinct from Stenotomus; and the species is not mentioned in Yarrow's list. 



