The Cavalli Family 311 



THE POMPANO 



(Trachinotus carolinus) 



The pompano was first described by Linnaeus, 

 in 1 766, from Dr. Garden's specimens from South 

 Carolina, which accounts for its specific name. 

 It is abundant on the South Atlantic and Gulf 

 coasts, to which it is mostly confined, though it 

 occasionally strays north to Cape Cod in summer, 

 and rarely to the West Indies. 



It has a short, deep body, being nearly half as 

 deep as long, oblong and robust. Its head is 

 short, about half as long as the depth of the 

 body, with a small, low mouth, and with few or 

 no teeth in the jaws ; the snout is blunt, the 

 profile from end of snout to the eye about verti- 

 cal, and from thence to the dorsal fin is regularly 

 arched. The color is bluish above and golden 

 or silvery below; the pectoral and anal fins are 

 yellow, shaded with blue ; caudal fin with bluish 

 reflections. 



The pompano frequents the sandy beaches of 

 the keys and islands of the Gulf coast, mostly 

 the outside shores, where it feeds on beach-fleas 

 and the beautiful little mollusks known as "pom- 

 pano-shells," also on small shrimps and other 



