334 NATURAL HISTORY OF AQUATIC ANIMALS. 



THE CALIFORNIA POMP AND STROMATETJS SIMILLIMUS. 



The California Pompano, Stromateus simillimus, is thus described by Professor Jordan : 

 " This species, known here as the Pompano, reaches a length of eight inches and a weight of 

 rather less than half a pound. It occurs along the entire coast of California and Oregon, being 

 most abundant about Santa Barbara and Soquel, and is not known from farther south than San 

 Diego. It appears in schools chiefly in the summer and faJJ; occasionally, also, during the winter, 

 its times of arrival and departure being quite variable. It is said that it was an extremely rare 

 visitant till about 1870, and that its abundance since then has steadily increased, it being now 

 often found in greater quantities than can be readily sold. It feeds on worms, small Crustacea, &c. 

 Nothing special is known of its breeding habits. As a food-fish it is held in the highest repute, 

 the price of individual fish ranging from two to four fora 'quarter.' Its flesh is fat, rich, and 

 excellent." 



THE BLACK RUDDER-FISH LIRUS PERCIFORMIS. 



This fish is also called by the fishermen "Log-fish" and "Barrel-fish." It has been observed 

 at various points along our coast from New Jersey to Nova Scotia, where schools of them were 

 several times observed off Halifax in 1877. It has hitherto been considered very rare north of 

 Cape Cod. I cannot doubt that it will be hereafter found at least as far south as Cape Hatteras 

 and probably along the whole length of our Atlantic coast. The habits of this fish are peculiar in 

 the extreme. They are almost always found in the vicinity of floating barrels and spars, some- 

 times inside of the barrels; hence the fishermen often call them "Barrel-fish," though the most 

 usual name is "Rudder-fish." They are occasionally taken in lobster-pots. When cruising in the 

 Fish Commission yacht "Mollie,*' off Noman's Land, July 13, 1875, we observed numerous specimens 

 swimming under floating spars and planks. Sometimes as many as from fifty to seventy-five were 

 observed under a single spar, a cloud of shadowy black forms being plainly visible from the deck. 

 We went out to them in a row-boat and succeeded in taking thirteen of them in the course of a 

 day. After the first thrusts of the dip-net they grew shy and sought refuge under the boat, under 

 which they would sink far below our reach. A lull of a few moments would bring them back to 

 the log under which they had clustered until disturbed again. When the boat was rowed away 

 they followed in a close-swimming school until we gained full speed, when they suddenly turned, as 

 if by one impulse, and swain back to the log or spar. Once they followed us about two hundred 

 yards from the spar, and then leaving us retreated to their old shelter, reaching it some time before 

 we could turn the boat and row back to it. I had before this supposed them to be quite unusual, 

 but on this one day we must have seen two hundred or two hundred and fifty at the lowest com- 

 putation. They doubtless have gained the name of Rudder-fish from the sailors who have seen 

 them swimming about the sterns of becalmed vessels. 



When the Fish Commission steamer has been dredging off Halifax, I have several times 

 noticed schools of them hovering around her sides. They doubtless gather around the logs for the 

 purpose of feeding upon the hydroids and minute crustaceans and perhaps mollusca which 

 accumulate areund them. Their stomachs were found to contain amphipod crustaceans, hydroids, 

 and young squids. They are doubtless to some degree protected by the spars under which they 

 congregate, in the same manner as their kindred, the Butter-fish, which swim under the disk of the 

 jelly-fish. Their colors undergo considerable change from time to time, possibly at the will of 

 the fish. 



The Rudder-fish attains the length of ten or twelve inches, and is excellent eating. DeKay 

 states that the fishermen of New York, in 1842, called this species the " Snip-nosed Mullet," but 

 this name does not appear to have become permanent. 



