CHAPTER ‘XVII 
CAVALLAS AND PAMPANOS 
HE Pampanos: Carangide.—We next take up the great 
family of Pampanos, Carangide, distinguished from 
i (| the Scombride as a whole by the shorter, deeper 
Baa Fe fewer and larger vertebrae, and by the loss of the pro- 
vision for swift movement in the open sea characteristic of the 
mackerels and their immediate allies. A simple mark of the 
Carangide is the presence of two separate spines in front of 
the anal fin. These spines are joined to the fin in the young. 
All of the species undergo considerable changes with age, and 
almost all are silvery in color with metallic blue on the back. 
Most like the true mackerel are the ‘“‘leather-jackets,”’ or 
“runners,” forming the genera Scomberoides and Oligoplites. 
Scomberoides of the Old World has the body scaly, long, slender, 
and fitted for swift motion; Scomberoides sancti-petri is a widely 
diffused species, and others are found in Polynesia. In the 
New World genus Oligoplites the scales are reduced to linear 
ridges imbedded in the skin at different angles. Oligoplites 
saurus is a common dry and bony fish abounding in the West 
Indies and ranging north in summer to Cape Cod. 
Naucrates ductor, the pilotfish, or romero, inhabits the 
open sea, being taken—everywhere rarely—in Europe, the 
West Indies, Hawaii, and Japan. It is marked by six black 
cross-bands. Its tail has a keel, and it reaches a length of about 
two feet. In its development it undergoes considerable change, 
its first dorsal fin being finally reduced to disconnected spines. 
The amber-fishes, forming the genus Seriola, are rather 
robust fishes, with the anal fin much shorter than the soft dor- 
sal. The sides of the tail have a low, smooth keel. From a 
yellow streak obliquely across the head in some species they 
receive their Spanish name of coronado. The species are 
272 
