440 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Tracliinotus falcatus Joedan & Eveemann, Bull. 47, U. S. Nat. Mus. 941^ 

 1896, pi. CXLYI, fig. 396, 1900; Bean, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat, Hist. IX, 

 363, 1897; Smith, Bull. U. S. F. C. XVII, 98, 1888. 



Body broadly ovate, moderately compressed, profile very 

 evenly conyex from procumbent spine to level of upper edge of 

 eye, where it descends almost vertically. The depth of the body 

 is contained one and three fifths times in the length ; the length 

 of the head is contained three and three fourths times in that 

 of the body. The vertical part is about one and one third times 

 the eye; the length of snout nearly equal to eye; mouth nearly 

 horizontal; maxillary reaching to vertical from middle of eye,, 

 its length two and two thirds in head; jaws without teeth in 

 adult; dorsal spines short and thick, not connected by mem- 

 brane in adult; ventrals short, their tips scarcely reaching half 

 way to anterior anal spine, three in head; caudal widely forked; 

 lobes about two and two thirds in length of body; dorsal and 

 anal fins falcate; anterior rays reaching almost to posterior end 

 of fins; in adults, dorsal lobe two and two thirds, anal lobe four 

 and one half, in length of body. D. VI-1, 19; A. II-1, 18. 



Color, bluish above, silvery below; the fins all bluish with 

 lighter tips. In the young the coloration is different from that of 

 the adult. An individual 1^ inches long, taken at Beesleys Point 

 N. J. September 2, was mainly silvery when captured, but on 

 being placed in a small aquarium almost instantly became dark 

 brown, the dorsal and anal nearly black. On the ventrals, the* 

 anal spines, and the anterior tip of the anal fin was observed the 

 usual vermilion, shading into orange. Five young, from 1 inch 

 to If inches long, seined August 10 and 11 at Beesleys Pointy 

 exhibited, after immersion for several days in alcohol, the fol- 

 lowing colors: general color silvery, thickly sprinkled with 

 dusky; sides wholly or partly suffused with pink; ventrals and 

 tip of anterior anal rays orange; dorsal and anal dusky, with a 

 narrow, pale marginal band; caudal milk white, the lower lobe 

 faintly tinged with yellow; iris pink. 



The ovate pompano inhabits the Atlantic coasts of tropical 

 and temperate America; it is common in the West Indies; on 

 our east coast it occurs north to Cape Cod and south to Brazil; 



