FISHES OF NEW YORK 445 



Family 



Blue fishes 



Genus POMATOMUS Lacep&de 



Body oblong, compressed, covered with rather small scales, 

 which are weakly ctenoid; caudal peduncle rather stout; head 

 large, compressed; mouth large, oblique; premaxillaries pro- 

 tractile; maxillary not slipping under the preorbital, provided 

 with a large supplemental bone, lower jaw projecting; bands 

 of villiform teeth on vomer and palatines, those on the vomer 

 forming a triangular patch; jaws each with a single series of 

 very strong, compressed, unequal teeth, widely set, upper jaw 

 with an inner series of small depressed teeth; villiform teeth' 

 on the base of the tongue; occipital keel strong; free edge of 

 preopercle produced and serrated; gill membranes free from the 

 isthmus, not united; branchiostegals seven; gills four, a slit 

 behind the fourth; pseudobranchiae large; gill rakers slender, 

 rather few; opercle ending in a flat point, cheek and opercles 

 scaly; lateral line present, unarmed; dorsal fins two, the ante- 

 rior of about eight w r eak, low spines connected by membrane 

 and depressible in a groove; second dorsal long, similar to the 

 elongate anal, both fins being densely scaly; fin rays slender; 

 two very small, free anal spines, sometimes hidden in the skin; 

 ventrals thoracic, I, 5; peduncle stout; pectorals rather short; 

 caudal fin forked, -the lobes broad; air bladder simple, with thin 

 walls; pyloric caeca very numerous; vertebrae 10+14=24 as usual 

 in Carangidae. A single species, found in nearly all warm seas. 



223 Pomatomus saltatrix (Linnaeus) 

 BluefisJi ; Snap Mackerel; Snapper 



Perca saUatrix LINNAEUS, Syst. Nat. ed. X, I, 293, 1758, Carolina. 



Gasterosteus saltatrix LINNAEUS, op. eit. ed. XII, 491, 1766. 



Scomber plinubcus MITCHILL, Trans. Lit. & Phil. Soc. N. Y. I, 424, pi. IV, fig. 

 1, 1815. 



Temnodon saltator CUVIER & VALENCIENNES, Hist. Nat. Poiss. IX, 225, pL 

 260, 1833; DE KAY, N. Y. Fauna, Fishes, 130, pi. 26, fig. 81, 1842; POL- 

 BROOK, Ichth. S. C. 62, pi. 9, fig. 2, 1856; GUNTHER, Cat. Fish. Brit, 

 Mus. II, 479, 1860; STORER, Hist. Fish. Mass. 81, pi. XV, fig. 1, 1867. 



Pomatomus saltator JORDAN & GILBERT, Bull. 16, IT. S. Nat. MITS. 448, 1883. 



