FISHES OF NEW YORK 179 



recently dead, and he believes it came into the river alive. In 

 the vicinity of Woods Hole Mass. it is nov^^ a regular summer 

 visitor. According to Dr Smith, it is " taken every year in traps 

 at South Dartmouth, also occasionally at Quiseett and at 

 Menemsha, in latter part of September. All are about one size, 

 80 to 100 pounds. Fishermen call them 'big scale fish.' An 

 effort has been made to find a market for them in New Bedford, 

 but the people did not like them, owing to the toughness of the 

 flesh." 



The tarpon evidently breeds at Porto Rico, as Evermann and 

 Marsh collected a number of individuals measuring from 2^ to 

 3:^ inches at Fajardo in February 1899, these apparently being 

 the first young of the species so far recorded. 



Genus elops Linnaeus 

 Body elongate, subcylindric; scales small, silvery; head moder- 

 ate; conical anteriorly, with very long jaws, the lower slightly 

 included; branchiostegals 30; eye large and placed high; dorsal 

 fin high in front, the last rays short, origin of fin about midway 

 between tip of snout and end of middle caudal rays, the fin 

 depressible into a scaly sheath; anal fin short, well behind end 

 of dorsal, also depressible into a sheath; pectorals and ventrals 

 each with a long appendage; caudal fin long and deeply forked; 

 opercular bones thin, with expanded, membranaceous borders, 

 a collar of scales on occiput; lateral line continuous, nearly 

 straight, its tubes simple; large pseudobranchiae. Vertebrae 

 43+29^72. Large fishes of the open seas. The young are ribbon- 

 shaped, elongate, and pass through a series of metamorphoses 

 similar to the changes observed in the congers, 



104 Elops saurus Linnaeus 

 Big-eyed lierring 



Flops savriis Linnaeus; Syst. Nat. ed. XII, I, 518, 17G6; De Kay, N. Y. 



Fauna, Fishes, 267, pi. 41, fig. 131, 1842; Jordan & Gilbekt. Bull. IG, 



U. S. Nat. Mus. 261, 1883; Goode, Fish & Fish. Ind. U. S. I, 611, pi. 



218, upper figure, 1884; Jordan & Evermann, Bull. 47, TJ. S. Nat. Mus. 



410, 1896; pi. LXVII, fig. 178, 1900; Bean, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist. 



IX, 334, 1897; Smith, Bull. U. S. F. C. XVII, 90. 1898; Bean, 52(1 Aun. 



Rep't N. Y. State Mus. 96, 1900; Evermann & Marsh, Bull. U. S. F. G. 



for 1900, 81, fig. 11. 1900. 

 Elops inermis Mitchill, Trans. Lit. & Phil. Soc. N. Y. I, 445. 



