Fig. 213.—Pilot-fish, Naucrates ductor (Linnæus). New Bedford, Mass.
Fig. 214.—Amber-fish, Seriola lalandi (Cuv. & Val.). Family Carangidæ. Wood's Hole.
Seriola dorsalis is the noted yellow-tail of California, valued by anglers for its game qualities. It comes to the Santa Barbara Islands in early summer. Seriola zonata is the rudder-fish, or shark's pilot, common on our New England coast. The banded young, abundant off Cape Cod, lose their marks with age. Seriola hippos is the "samson-fish" of Australia. Seriola lalandi is the great amber-fish of the West Indies, occasionally venturing farther northward, and Seriola dumerili the amber-jack, or coronado, of the Mediterranean. The deep-bodied medregal (Seriola fasciata) is also taken in the West Indies, as is also the high-finned Seriola rivoliana. Species very similar to these occur in Hawaii and Japan, where they are known as Ao, or bluefishes. Seriola lata is fossil in the mountains of Tuscany.
The runner, Elegatis bipinnulatus, differs from Seriola in having a finlet behind dorsal and anal. It is found in almost all warm seas, ranging north once in a while to Long Island.
The mackerel scads (Decapterus) have also a finlet, and on the posterior part of the body the lateral line is shielded with bony plates. In size and form these little fishes much resemble small mackerel, and they are much valued as food wherever abundant. Decapterus punclatus, known also as cigar-fish and round-robin, frequently visits our Atlantic coasts from the West Indies, where it is abundant. Decapterus russelli is the Maruaji, highly valued in Japan for its abundance, while Decapterus muroadsi is the Japanese muroaji.
Fig. 215.—The Saurel, Trachurus trachurus (Linnæus). Newport, R. I.
Megalaspis cordyla abounds in the East Indies and Polynesia. It has many finlets, and the bony plates on the lateral line are developed to an extraordinary degree.
In Trachurus the finlets are lost and the bony plates extend the whole length of the lateral line. The species known as saurel and wrongly called horse-mackerel are closely related and some of them very widely distributed.