14(3 MEMOinS OF THE QUEENSLAND MUSEUM. 



Food: — Remains of small erustaeeans, mollusks, and a worm were found 

 in the stomachs of two specimens examined. 



Range: — Coasts of New South Wales and Southern Queensland. Besides 

 l*ort Jackson and Bloreton Bay the oidy locality from which I have seen this 

 .sole is Byron Bay, N.S.W., where the ''Endeavour" trawled a specimen when 

 en route to Moreton Bay in July, 1910. 



Part III.— CARANGID/^ (No. 2). 

 Subfamily TRACHINOTIN^. 



THE SWALLOWTAILS. 



Litoral carangoid fishes, inhabiting all warm seas, distinguished by the 

 unarmed tail, the long anal fin^ which is similar to the soft dorsal and exceeds 

 in length the abdominal region, and the short non-falcate pectoral fins. Genera 5 ; 

 species about 28. 



As is the case with all nearly related forms the swallowtails or pampanos,- 

 to use a convenient general term, are partially migratory, though their move- 

 ments are for the most part regulated by the abundance or scarcity of the food 

 supply. That climatic conditions, however, influence to some extent their 

 periodical migrations, seems to be indicated by the fact that our common 

 swallowtail {T. hotla)," though present in our waters at all seasons of the year, 

 visits our shores in large schools during the winter months. These fishes 

 presumably come from the south, since they are usually associated with the 

 shoals of "sea mullet" {Mugil ccphalus dohula) at that season coasting north- 

 wards to their breeding-grounds. The pampanos swim high in the water and, 

 through the instrumentality of their powerful caudal fin, are able not only to 

 move with extreme rapidity, but also to turn sharply on their course with the 

 minimum loss of time and speed. They are, therefore, very destructive to the 

 young of other fishes, which form a great part of their food, along with swimming 

 crabs, squid, and certain mollusks which the,y seek among the breakers. 



Opinions vary greatly as to the gastronomic value of these fishes, but 

 modern popular opinion apparently agrees in regarding the majority of_ the 

 species as being dry and insipid. There are, however, some notable exceptions, 

 as for instance Trachinotus carolinus,^ the "common pampano" of the Southern 

 Atlantic and Gulf States of North America, which Jordan and Evermann 

 cliaracterise as "the most valued food-fish in our southern waters, its flesh rich. 



1 Except in Campoyramma Regan, in which the anal is much shorter than the dorsal 

 and about as long as the abdominal region (i.e. the space between the origin of the ventrals and 

 the soft anal), and the pectorals are subfalciform. 



- The dictionaries s- Y)ell this word " pompano." but I have followed Jordan & Evermann 

 (Fi-:h. North & Mid. America, pt, i, p. 944) in adopting the above a? the more cla--sical ortlio- 

 graphy. Cuvier & Valenciennes too employed this reading, having named tlie species, which 

 wo now know as Trachinotus carolinus, T. pampanus. 



3 Mem. Queensl. Mu-., iii, pp. 93-98. 

 * Gasterosteus carollnus Linnrcus, Syst. Nat., ed. 12. p. 490. 



