A Guide to the Study of Fishes, Volume 2 (of 2)

by David Starr Jordan

Fig. 217.—The Pampano, Trachinotus carolinus (Linnæus). Wood's Hole.

Pampano in Spanish means the leaf of the grape, from the broad body of the fish. The spelling "pompano" should therefore be discouraged.

The other pampanos, of which there are several in tropical America and Asia, are little esteemed, the flesh being dry and relatively flavorless. Trachinotus palometa, the gaff-topsail pampano, has very high fins and its sides have four black bands like the marks of a grill. The round pampano, Trachinotus falcatus, is common southward, as is also the great pampano, Trachinotus goodei, which reaches a length of three feet. Trachinotus ovatus, a large deep-bodied pampano, is common in Polynesia and the East Indies. No pampanos are found in Europe, but a related genus, Lichia, contains species which much resemble them, but in which the body is more elongate and the mouth larger.

Numerous fossils are referred to the Carangidæ with more or less certainty. Aipichthys pretiosus and other species occur in the Cretaceous. These are deep-bodied fishes resembling Seriola, having the falcate dorsal twice as long as the anal and the ventral ridge with thickened scales. Vomeropsis (longispina elongata, etc.), also from the Eocene, with rounded caudal, the anterior dorsal rays greatly elongate, and the supraoccipital crest highly developed, probably constitutes with it a distinct family, Vomeropsidæ. Several species referable to Carangus are found in the Miocene. Archæus glarisianus, resembling Carangus, but without scales so far as known, is found in the Oligocene of Glarus; Seriola prisca and other species of Seriola occur in the Eocene; Carangopsis brevis, etc., allied to Caranx, but with the lateral line unarmed, is recorded from the Eocene of France and Italy.

Ductor leptosomus from the Eocene of Monte Bolca resembles Naucrates; Trachinotus tenuiceps is recorded from Monte Bolca, and a species of uncertain relationship, called Pseudovomer minutus, with sixteen caudal vertebræ is taken from the Miocene of Licata.

The Papagallos: Nematistiidæ.—Very close to the Carangidæ, and especially to the genus Seriola, is the small family of Nematistiidæ, containing the papagallo, Nematistius pectoralis of the west coast of Mexico. This large and beautiful fish has the general appearance of an amber-fish, but the dorsal spines are produced in long filaments. The chief character of the family is found in the excessive division of the rays of the pectoral fins.

The Bluefishes: Cheilodipteridæ.—Allied to the Carangidæ is the family of bluefishes (Cheilodipteridæ, or Pomatomidæ). The single species Cheilodipterus saltatrix, or Pomatomus saltatrix, known as the bluefish, is a large, swift, extremely voracious fish, common throughout most of the warmer parts of the Atlantic, but very irregularly distributed on the various coasts. Its distribution is doubtless related to its food. It is more abundant on our Eastern coast than anywhere else, and its chief food here is the menhaden. The bluefish differs from the Carangidæ mainly in its larger scales, and in a slight serration of the bones of the head. Its flesh is tender and easily torn. As a food-fish, rich, juicy, and delicate, it has few superiors. Its maximum weight is from twelve to twenty pounds, but most of those taken are much smaller. It is one of the most voracious of all fish. Concerning this, Professor Baird observes:

Fig. 218.—Bluefish, Cheilodipterus saltatrix (L.). New York.

"There is no parallel in point of destructiveness to the bluefish among the marine species on our coast, whatever may be the case among some of the carnivorous fish of the South American waters. The bluefish has been well likened to an animated chopping-machine the business of which is to cut to pieces and otherwise destroy as many fish as possible in a given space of time. All writers are unanimous in regard to the destructiveness of the bluefish. Going in large schools in pursuit of fish not much inferior to themselves in size, they move along like a pack of hungry wolves, destroying everything before them. Their trail is marked by fragments of fish and by the stain of blood in the sea, as, where the fish is too large to be swallowed entire, the hinder portion will be bitten off and the anterior part allowed to float away or sink. It is even maintained with great earnestness that such is the gluttony of the fish, that when the stomach becomes full the contents are disgorged and then again filled. It is certain that it kills many more fish than it requires for its own support.