Trachurus trachurus common in Europe, extends to Japan where it is the abundant maaji. Trachurus mediterraneus is common in southern Europe and Trachurus symmetricus in California. Trachurus picturatus of Madeira is much the same as the last named, and there is much question as to the right names and proper limits of all these species.
In Trachurops the bony plates are lacking on the anterior half of the body, and there is a peculiar nick and projection on the lower part of the anterior edge of the shoulder-girdle. Trachurops crumenophthalma, the goggler, or big-eyed scad, ranges widely in the open sea and at Hawaii, as the Akule, is the most highly valued because most abundant of the migratory fishes. At Samoa it is equally abundant, the name being here Atule. Trachurops torva is the meaji, or big-eyed scad, of the Japanese, always abundant.
Fig. 216.—Yellow Mackerel, Carangus chrysos (Mitchill). Wood's Hole.
To Caranx, Carangus, and a number of related genera, characterized by the bony armature on the narrow caudal peduncle, a host of species may be referred. These fishes, known as cavallas, hard-tails, jacks, etc., are broad-bodied, silvery or metallic black in color, and are found in all warm seas. They usually move from the tropics northward in the fall in search of food and are especially abundant on our Atlantic coast, in Polynesia, and in Japan. About the Oceanic Islands they are resident, these being their chosen spawning-grounds. In Hawaii and Samoa they form a large part of the food-supply, the ulua (Carangus forsteri) and the malauli (Carangus melampygus) being among the most valuable food-fishes, large in size and excellent in flesh, unsurpassed in fish chowders. Of the American species Carangus chrysos, called yellow mackerel, is the most abundant, ranging from Cape Cod southward. This is an elongate species of moderate size. The cavalla, or jiguagua, Carangus hippos, known by the black spot on the opercle, with another on the pectoral fin, is a widely distributed species and one of the largest of the tribe. Another important food-fish is the horse-eye-jack, or jurel, Carangus latus, which is very similar to the species called ulua in the Pacific. The black jack, or tiñosa, of Cuba, Carangus funebris, is said to be often poisonous. This is a very large species, black in color, the sale of which has been long forbidden in the markets of Havana. The young of different species of Carangus are often found taking refuge under the disk of jelly-fishes protected by the stinging feelers. The species of the genus Carangus have well-developed teeth. In the restricted genus of Caranx proper, the jaws are toothless. Caranx speciosus, golden with dark cross-bands, is a large food-fish of the Pacific. Citula armata is another widely distributed species, with some of the dorsal rays produced in long filaments.
In Alectis ciliaris, the cobbler-fish, or threadfish, the armature of the tail is very slight and each fin has some of its rays drawn out into long threads. In the young these are very much longer than the body, but with age they wear off and grow shorter, while the body becomes more elongate. In Vomer, Selene, and Chloroscombrus the bony armature of the tail, feeble in Alectis, by degrees entirely disappears.
Vomer setipinnis, the so-called moonfish, or jorobado, has the body greatly elevated, compressed, and distorted, while the fins, growing shorter with age, become finally very low. Selene vomer, the horse-head-fish, or look-down (see Fig. 113, Vol. I), is similarly but even more distorted. The fins, filamentous in the young, grow shorter with age, as in Vomer and Alectis. The skeleton in these fishes is essentially like that of Carangus, the only difference lying in the compression and distortion of the bones. Chloroscombrus contains the casabes, or bumpers, thin, dry, compressed fish, of little value as food, the bony armature of the tail being wholly lost.
To the genus Trachinotus belong the pampanos, broad-bodied, silvery fishes, toothless when adult, the bodies covered with small scales and with no bony plates.
The true pampano, Trachinotus carolinus, is one of the finest of all food-fishes, ranking with the Spanish mackerel and to be cooked in the same way, only by broiling. The flesh is white, firm, and flaky, with a moderate amount of delicate oil. It has no especial interest to the angler and it is not abundant enough to be of great commercial importance, yet few fish bring or deserve to bring higher prices in the markets of the epicures. The species is most common along our Gulf coast, ranging northward along the Carolinas as far as Cape Cod.
