80 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION 
Genus 19. TARPON Jordan & Evermann. Grande iScaille. 
Body oblong, compressed, covered with very large, thick, silvery, cycloid scales; belly narrow, 
but not carinated, its edge with ordinary scales. Mouth large, oblique, the lower jaw prominent; 
maxillary broad, extending beyond eye. Villiform teeth on jaws, vomer, palatines, tongue, sphenoid, 
and pterygoid bones. Eye very large, with an adipose eyelid. Lateral line nearly straight, its tubes 
radiating widely over surface of scales. Branchiostegals 23. Pseud obranchise wanting. Gillrakers 
long and slender. Dorsal fin short and high, inserted, behind ventrals (over ventrals in Megalops) , its 
last ray elongate and filamentous as in Megalops, Dorosoma, and Opisthonema; anal fin much longer 
than dorsal, falcate, its last ray produced; caudal widely forked; pectorals and ventrals rather long; 
anal with a sheath of scales;' dorsal naked; caudal more or less scaly; a collar of large scales at the 
nape. Vertebrae about 57 (28 -j- 29). Size very large, the largest of the herring-like fishes. 
The posterior insertion of the dorsal fin distinguishes the single species of Tarpon from the East 
Indian Mcgalops cgprinoides. a fish of similar habit, in which the dorsal is inserted above the ventrals. 
24. Tarpon atlanticus (Cuvier & Valenciennes). 
Tarpon; Tarpum; Grande Ecaille; Silver King; “ Sabalo ”; Savanilla; Savalle. 
Head 4; depth 3.75; eye 4.45; snout 5; maxillary 1.65; mandible 1.70; interorbital 4.8; preor- 
bital 11; D. 12; A. 19 or 20; pectoral 1.3; ventral 1.75; scales 5-42-5. Proportions in young of about 
3 inches: Head 3.34; depth 4.7; eye 3.3; snout 4.75; maxillary 1.65; mandible 1.6; interorbital 4.6. 
Body elongate, compressed, not elevated, with large cycloid scales; mouth large, maxillary 
reaching far beyond eye, lower jaw projecting; villiform teeth on jaws, vomer, palatines, tongue, 
sphenoid and pterygoid bones; lateral line straight with radiating tubes; pseudobranch is* minute; last 
dorsal ray produced, the fin inserted behind ventrals; pectorals and ventrals each with an accessory 
scale. Dark above, silvery on sides. 
Found from Long Island to Brazil; common on our southern coasts, especially about Florida; com- 
mon about Porto Rico where it evidently breeds, as numerous immature individuals were taken at 
Hucares and Fajardo. The four examples from Hucares are from 7.5 to 11.5 inches long and were seined 
in a small brackish pool of dark-colored water, hot over 5 feet deep, in the corner of a mangrove 
swamp, and at that time (February) entirely separated from the ocean by a narrow strip of land 
scarcely 25 feet wide. The 13 others are nearly all very young, of 2.25 to 3.25 inches, collected at 
Fajardo. No large individuals were seen. The young of the tarpon seems to be rare or wanting in 
collections. The U. S. National Museum contains one individual of about 9 inches. We do not know 
that any as small as those above mentioned have ever before been recorded. 
The tarpon reaches a length of 5 or 6 feet and a weight of 30 to more than 300 pounds. The 
largest one recorded as taken on a book weighed 209 pounds, and the largest taken with the harpoon 
weighed 383 pounds, if we may believe the record; but examples weighing over 100 pounds are not 
often seen. The silver king is the greatest of game-fishes. “An immense and active fish, preying 
eagerly on schools of small fry, in pursuit of which it ascends fresh- water streams quite a long distance. ’ ’ 
It is often dangerous to seine fishermen, leaping over or through their nets with great force. 
Megalops atlanticus Cuvier & Valenciennes, Hist. Nat. Poiss., XIX, 398, 1846, Guadeloupe, Santo Domingo, Martinique, 
and Porto Rico; Poey, Fauna Puerto-Riquena, 343, 1881; Stahl, 1. c., 80 and 165, 1883. 
Mcgalops elongatus Girard, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila. 1858, 224, Long Island. 
Tarpon atlanticus, Jordan <& Evermann, 1. c., 409, 1896. 
