CALJFOKMA KISIl AND GAME. 13 



THE FISHES OF THE CROAKER FAMILY (SCIAENIDAE) OF 



CALIFORNIA. 



By EDWIN CHAPIN STARKS, Stanford University. 



The fishes of this family have a peculiai- silvery skin that is unlike 

 the bright, burnished silver of some fishes, the hen-ings foi- instance, 

 but suggests rather frosted silver. The head is closely covered with 

 scales, more or less irregular iii si/e and shape, and the pore-bearing 

 scales of the lateral line extend onto the caudal fin. The bones of the 

 skull are variously excavated with tunnels and open channels (cav- 

 ei-nous). and the chin is usually provided with large pores or barbels. 

 ""J'wo dorsal fins are present ; the first composed of sj)ines and more or 

 less triangular in shape. The anal fin has one or two spines, sometimes 

 very small and slender or sometimes the second one is very much 

 enlarged. 



The croakers are carnivorous fishes rather distantly related to the 

 basses. Many of them make a peculiar noise -from which the common 

 names of croaker, grunter, and drum have been derived. The noise is 

 supposed to be made by forcing the air (or more properly, gas) from 

 one part of the swim bladder to another. The species are numerous on 

 sandy shores, and are most abundant in warm and tropic seas. At 

 Panama, for instance, there are between 40 and 45 representatives of 

 this family. Of the eight that occur on our coast only two are found 

 in abundance as far north as San Francisco. Most of the others occa- 

 sionally stray that far. but are connuon only on the southern coast. 

 All of them are very good food fishes, and some are classed as game 

 fishes. 



The connuon or populai- names of these fishes are even more mixed up 

 and poorly applied than usual. Ciinoscion nohilis, the "sea bass," is 

 not a bass, and Seriphus, sometimes called the herring, does not even 

 remotely resemble the hei'i-ing. The young "sea bass' is known as "sea 

 trout." No possible stretch of the imagination could make it suggest 

 a trout, and having wrongly called its parent a bass, to call it a trout 

 is a very good conunentary on how loosely common names are used. 

 Gon/oncnuis, the fish that is usually known as the kingfish. is some- 

 times called "tomcod" on the southei-n C-alifornia coast. It i-csembles 

 a tomcod as little as Srriplnis, the (pieenfish, resembles a herring. 

 When GciiijoiK mus, the kingfish, is called "tomcod" the name kingfish 

 is ti-ansferred to Seriphus, the (pieenfish, or white croaker. Cynoscion 

 parvipinnis, a close relative of the "sea bass," is sometimes called 

 "bluefish," though it has nothing whatever in common with the famous 

 bluefish of the Atlantic. The names croaker, roncador, and corvina 

 are not at all consistently applied, but are shuffled back and forth 

 between various of these fishes. 



Hence in the use of vernacular names among these or any other fishes 

 the reader is again cautioned that there is no constancy nor rule for 

 their application, and he can oidy be sure of definitely indicating a 

 given fish by using its scientific name. Though such names will 

 probably never be used by people at large, and certainly not by unlet- 

 tered fishermen, the scientific name is nevertheless the one true name 

 for a species, and a name that will be recognized by scientific men in 

 all counti'ies the woi-ld over. 



