. The fishes of North Carolina . Fishes. 196 FISHES OF NORTH CAROLINA. a rather sharp angle; lateral line beginning opposite upper margin of eye, dropping suddenly behind pectoral, and continued to tail near and concurrent with belly; dorsal rays about 135, of nearly uniform length, the longest not twice diameter of eye; anal spines about 100, scarcely evident, the anterior directed backward, the posterior forward; pectorals short, pointed, slightly longer than eye. Color: uniformly glistening silvery; dorsal fin with a dark margin. (lepturus, slender tailed.) This curious and easily recognize
. The fishes of North Carolina . Fishes. 196 FISHES OF NORTH CAROLINA. a rather sharp angle; lateral line beginning opposite upper margin of eye, dropping suddenly behind pectoral, and continued to tail near and concurrent with belly; dorsal rays about 135, of nearly uniform length, the longest not twice diameter of eye; anal spines about 100, scarcely evident, the anterior directed backward, the posterior forward; pectorals short, pointed, slightly longer than eye. Color: uniformly glistening silvery; dorsal fin with a dark margin. (lepturus, slender tailed.) This curious and easily recognized fish of the warm seas comes northward on our east coast as far as Massachusetts, and is not rare from Chesapeake Bay southward. It attains a length of 5 feet, and in Jamaica and other places is eaten, although it has little value in the United States. On the North Carolina coast it enters all the inlets and sounds during summer and fall, and sometimes at least in winter. At Beaufort it is often caught in line fishing at the inlet and inside the harbor, the hooks being baited with mullet and sunk to the bottom; the fish is said to pull very hard when caught. Many are taken in mullet nets as late as the second half of November, 40 to 50 being sometimes taken at one haul; they tangle the nets badly, and are not liked by the fishermen. On December 13,1890, Dr. W. C. Kendall found a cutlass-fish stranded on the beach at Hatter as Fig. 80. Cutlass-pish; Hair-tail. Trichiurus lepturus. The cutlass-fish has an exceedingly formidable mouth, and, being an active swimmer, must be a terror to small fishes. Spawning occurs in sumrrier. In August, 1906, Dr. E. W. Gudger obtained ripe eggs from a 30-inch fish caught at Beaufort. The ovary is single, and in this specimen was about inches long. Family XIPHIIDiE. The Sword-fishes. This family contains a single species of large size and great power, inhabi- ting the high sens. Body elongate, compact, smooth, and destitute of scales.
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectfishes, bookyear1907
