414 SEVENTH REPORT OF THE FOREST, FISH AND GAME COMMISSION. 



115. Flasher; Triple-tail (Lobotcs surinamensis Bloch). 



Holocentrus surinamensis BLOCK, Ichth., pi. 243, 1790, Surinam. 



Bodianus triurus MITCHILL, Trans. Lit. & Phil. Soc., I, 418, pi. Ill, fig. 10, 1815, Powles 



Hook, N. J. 



' Lobotes auctorum GttNTHER, Cat. Fish. Brit. Mus., I, 338, 1859. 

 Lobotfs surinamensis CUVIER & VALENCIENNES, Hist. Nat. Poiss., V, 319, 1830; DEK.AY, 



N. Y. Fauna, Fishes, 88, pi. 18, fig. 49, 1842, New York; HOLBROOK, Ichth. S. C., ed. 



i, 159, pi. 23, fig. 2, 1856; JORDAN & GILBERT, Bull. 16, U. S. Nat. Mus., 555, 1883; 



JORDAN & EVERMANN, Bull. 47, U. S. Nat. Mus., 1235, 1896, pi. CXCIV, fig. 510, 



1900; H. M. SMITH, Bull. U. S. F. C. 1897, too, 1898; SHERWOOD & EDWARDS, 



Bull. U. S. F. C. 1901, 28, 1901, Narragansett Bay. 



FLASHER. 



Blackish above, silvery gray on the sides, often blotched and tinged with yellow ; 

 fins dusky gray, sometimes mingled with yellow. 



The Flasher is a large species, found in all warm seas, ranging on our coast from 

 Cape Cod to Panama ; it reaches the length of 3 feet and is used for food. At 

 Woods Hole, according to Dr. Smith, it is very rarely taken. Specimens were 

 secured, however, in August, 1873, December, 1875, September 20, 1886, and in 

 August, 1890. The individual obtained in 1886 was caught in a trap at Menemsha, 

 Martha's Vineyard. The Rhode Island Fish Commission has a specimen weighing 

 6 pounds and measuring 22 inches, which was taken September 10, 1900, in a trap 

 off Prudence Island, Narragansett Bay. The example described and figured by 

 Mitchill was taken at Powles Hook, N. J. According to Mitchill specimens 

 weighing 4 or 5 pounds were occasionally secured, and the fish was sometimes 

 called Black Grunt. DeKay knew the fish only from the accounts of it given 

 by Mitchill and Holbrook. 



