Cavallas and Pampanos 497 
entire school ever unite in an attack upon a particular object of 
prey, as is said to be the case with the ferocious fishes of the 
South American rivers; should they do so, no animal, however 
large, could withstand their onslaught. 
“They appear to eat anything that swims of suitable size— 
fish of all kinds, but perhaps more especially the menhaden, 
which they seem to follow along the coast, and which they 
atack with such ferocity as to drive them on the shore, where 
Fig. 388.—Sergeant-fish, Rachycentron canadum (Linneus). Virginia. 
they are sometimes piled up in windrows to the depth of a 
foot or more.” 
The Sergeant-fishes: Rachycentride.— The Rachycentride, or 
sergeant-fishes, are large, strong, swift, voracious shore fishes, 
with large mouths and small teeth, ranging northward from the 
warm seas. The dorsal spines are short and stout, separate 
from the fin, and the body is almost cylindrical, somewhat like 
that of the pike. 
Rachycentron canadum, called cobia, crab-eater, snooks, or 
sergeant-fish, reaches a length of about five feet. The last 
name is supposed to allude to the black stripe along its side, 
like the stripe on a sergeant’s trousers. It is rather common 
in summer along our Atlantic coast as far as Cape Cod, espe- 
cially in Chesapeake Bay. Rachycentron pondicerrianum, equally 
voracious, extends its summer depredations as far as Japan. 
The more familiar name for these fishes, Elacate, is of later date 
than Rachycentron. 
Mr. Prime thus speaks of the crab-eater as a game-fish: 
“Tn shape he may be roughly likened to the great northern 
pike, with a similar head, flattened on the forehead. He is 
dark green on the back, growing ‘ighter on the sides, but the 
