494 Cavallas and Pampanos 
Its maximum weight is from twelve to twenty pounds, but 
most of those taken are much smaller. It is one of the most 
voracious of all fish. Concerning this, Professor Baird observes: 
“There is no parallel in point of destructiveness to the 
bluefish among the marine species on our coast, whatever may 
be the case among some of the carnivorous fish of the South 
American waters. The bluefish has been well likened to an 
animated chopping-machine the business of which is to cut 
to pieces and otherwise destroy as many fish as possible in a 
Fic. 387.—Bluefish, Cheilodipterus saltatriz (L.). New York. 
given space of time. All writers are unanimous in regard to 
the destructiveness of the bluefish. Going in large schools 
in pursuit of fish not much inferior to themselves in size, they 
move along like a pack of hungry wolves, destroying every- 
thing before them. Their trail is marked by fragments of fish 
and by the stain of blood in the sea, as, where the fish is too 
large to be swallowed entire, the hinder portion will be bitten 
off and the anterior part allowed to float away or sink. It is 
even maintained with great earnestness that such is the glut- 
tony of the fish, that when the stomach becomes full the con- 
tents are disgorged and then again filled. It is certain that 
it kills many more fish than it requires for its own support. 
“The youngest fish, equally with the older, perform this 
function of destruction, and although they occasionally devour 
crabs, worms, etc., the bulk of their sustenance throughout 
the greater part of the year is derived from other fish. Noth- 
ing is more common than to find a small bluefish of six or eight 
inches in length under a school of minnows making continual 
dashes and captures among them. The stomachs of the blue- 
a 
