Fig. 282.—Calamus bajonado (Bloch & Schneider), Jolt-head Porgy. Pez de Pluma. Family Sparidæ.
Fig. 283.—Little-head Porgy, Calamus proridens Jordan & Gilbert. Key West.
Very similar to the porgy is the famous red tai or akadai of Japan (Pagrus major), a fish so highly esteemed as to be, with the rising sun and the chrysanthemum, a sort of national emblem. In all prints and images the fish-god Ebisu (Fig. 280), beloved of the Japanese people, appears with a red tai under his arm. This species, everywhere abundant, is crimson in color, and the flesh is always tender and excellent. A similar species is the well-known and abundant "schnapper" of Australia, Pagrus unicolor. Another but smaller tai or porgy, crimson, sprinkled with blue spots, Pagrus cardinalis, occurs in Japan in great abundance, as also two species similar in character but without red, known as Kurodai or black tai. These are Sparus latus and Sparus berda. The gilt-head of the Mediterranean, Sparus aurata, is very similar to these Japanese species. Sparus sarba in Australia is the tarwhine, and Sparus australis the black bream. The numerous species of Pagellus abound in the Mediterranean. These are smaller in size than the species of Pagrus, red in color and with feebler teeth. Monotaxis grandoculis, known as the "mu," is a widely diffused and valuable food-fish of the Pacific islands, greenish in color, with pale cross-bands. Very closely related is also the American scup or fair maid (Stenotomus chrysops), one of our commonest pan fishes. In this genus and in Calamus the second interhæmal spine is very greatly enlarged, its concave end formed like a quill-pen and including the posterior end of the large air-bladder. This arrangement presumably assists in hearing. Of the penfishes, or pez de pluma, numerous species abound in tropical America, where they are valued as food. Of these the bajonado or jolt-head porgy (Calamus bajonado) is largest, most common and dullest in color. Calamus calamus is the saucer-eye porgy, and Calamus proridens, the little-head porgy. Calamus leucosteus is called white-bone porgy, and the small Calamus arctifrons the grass-porgy.
The Chopa spina, or pinfish, Lagodon rhomboides, is a little porgy with notched incisors, exceedingly common on our South Atlantic coast.
In some of the porgies the front teeth instead of being canine-like are compressed and truncate, almost exactly like human incisors. These species are known as sheepshead, or sargos.
Fig. 284.—Diplodus holbrooki Bean. Pensacola.
Diplodus sargus and Diplodus annularis are common sargos of the Mediterranean, silvery, with a black blotch on the back of the tail. Diplodus argenteus of the West Indies and Diplodus holbrooki of the Carolina coast are very close to these.