POMPANO, an important food fish (Tra chinotus carolinus) belonging to the teleosto mous family Carangida, and found chiefly in the southern United States, especially in Florida. These fishes are related to the mackerels, but lack the median finlets which are so general in the latter. The pompano reaches a length of about 18 inches and has a somewhat elevated and compressed body with a covering of very small scales and a strongly convex steep forehead. The anal and soft dorsal fins are both long and of nearly equal length and similar form, being very high in front and low behind. There !s a spinous dor sal fin from which the membrane disappears with age, and a deeply forked caudal without keels or bony plates on its peduncle. The jaws are at first provided with numerous small teeth which fall out with age, changes in other parts also taking place. The color is a beautiful polished silvery blue with golden reflections in parts and touches of orange on the paired fins. On the Atlantic Coast the pompano ranges from Brazil to Cape Cod; but it is only in the warm waters of the south Atlantic and eastern Gulf coasts that it is plentiful. Although occurring on the Pacific side of the continent it is there nowhere common. Except at the extreme southern end of Florida the pompano is a migratory fish, coming in from the sea and en tering the shallow bays in the spring, the migratory wave gradually moving up the coast and reaching the waters of New Jersey and Massachusetts only when the summer is well advanced. In the fall they leave at a corre
spondingly early date. They approach the shores in large schools, swimming swiftly at the surface, but some time after entering the shallow bays break up into small parties to spawn and search for the shellfish which are their chief food. The largest runs come in April and May, and, as the dense schools ap proach very close to the shelving shores, seines may be operated with great effect, and large quantities are thus taken in Florida and South Carolina. Farther north, in Chesapeake Bay and on the coasts of New Jersey and Massa chusetts, they are taken in pound nets. The pompano is the favorite fish of the wealthy and commands a high price in Northern markets. The name pompano is also applied to other species of the same and. related genera, but the Irish pompano (Genres) and California pom pano (Rhombus) are not closely allied. Con sult Goode, 'American Fishes) (New York 182S); Jordan and Everman, 'American Food and Game Fishes) (New York 1902).