PISHES OF NEW YORK 441 



young individuals are very common about Cape Cod in summer, 

 but no adults are seen. The young, from J to 1 inch long, ap- 

 pear in July, according to Dr Hugh M. Smith, and by September, 

 when they disappear, they are two inches long. 13 young, aver- 

 aging a little more than 2 inches in length, were obtained at 

 Oak Island beach September 30. 



The young of the round pompano are caught occasionally in 

 summer in Gravesend bay. Early in September 1897 a small 

 one was placed in a tank, where it lived and fed regularly till 

 November. The low temperature of the water then killed it. 



Mitchill gives a figure of the fish in the Transactions of the 

 Literary and Philosophical Society of New York under the name 

 spinous dory, but no description. De Kay calls it the spinous 

 trachinote, and describes a specimen 3 inches long from the har- 

 bor of New York, taken in September 1817. He mentions it as 

 a casual visitor from the south. 



According to Dr Goode the species is known in the south as 

 the shore pompano and in the Bermudas as the alewife. About 

 the Bermudas this pompano is sometimes very abundant as, in 

 1875, a school containing 600 or 700 was seined on the south 

 shore of the islands. The fish is highly esteemed there for table 

 use. 



The ovate pompano grows to the length of 15 inches and is 

 generally prized for food. 



221 Trachinotus argenteus Cuv. & Val. 

 Silvery Pompano 



Trachinotus argenteus Cuvier & Valenciennes, Hist. Nat. Poiss. VIII, 413, 

 1831, New York and Rio Janeiro; De Kay, N. Y. Fauna, Fishes, 116, 

 1842; Bean, 19th Rep. Comm. Fish. N. Y. 255, pi. X, fig. 13, 1890; 

 Jordan & Evermann, Bull. 47, U. S. Nat. Mus. 944, 1896; Smith, Bull. 

 U. S. F. C. XVII, 98, 1898. 



Trachinotus cupreus Cuvier & Valenciennes, Hist. Nat. Poiss. VIII, 414, 

 1831, Martinique. 



Body oblong, compressed, deep, its greatest depth one half of 

 total length without caudal, its thickness one fourth the depth 

 and nearly one half the length of head; least depth of caudal 

 peduncle one sixth of greatest depth; head short, two sevenths 

 of total without caudal; eye small, circular, equal to snout, one 



