THE FOOD AND GAME FISHES OF NEW YORK. 415 



116. Red Snapper (Neomcenis blackfordi Goode & Bean). 



Lutjanus blackfordii GQODK & BEAN, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., I, 176, 1878 (full description 



of adult); II, 137, 138, 1879, characters and measurements of young; GOODE, 



Game Fishes N. A., 16, 1878, with colored plate. 

 Lutjanus blackfordi JORDAN & GILBERT, Bull. 16, U. S. Nat. Mus., 549, 1883; BEAN, 



ipth Rept. Comm. Fish. N. Y., 263, pi. XVI, fig. 20, 1890. 

 Neomanis aya JORDAN & EVERMANN, Bull. 47, U. S. Nat. Mus., 1264, 1898, pi. CXCVII, 



fig. 516, 1900 (not Bodianus aya BLOCK, Ichth., 227, 1790); H. M. SMITH, Bull. 



U. S. F. C. 1897, 100, 1898. 



Color uniform scarlet. Center of scales lighter, also the belly, which is silvery ; 

 inside of axil of pectoral darker maroon. 



RED SNAPPER. 



On October 26, 1887, Mr. E. G. Blackford, Fish Commissioner of the State of 

 New York, forwarded to the National Museum a young Red Snapper, four and one 

 half inches long, which was caught in Great South Bay, at Bay Shore, Long Island. 

 This is the smallest Red Snapper that we have obtained, and it is the first record of 

 the occurrence of the species so far north. The specimen has been catalogued as 

 39,213 of the National Museum Fish Register. 



As in other young fishes the size of the eye, the length of the head and the 

 colors are different from these characters in the adult. 



A description of the colors of the fresh fish follows : 



A dark band nearly as wide as the diameter of the eye is placed immediately in 

 front of the spinous dorsal ; it fades out about the median line of the body. Three 

 similar bands, and of like size, under the dorsal, separated by narrow interspaces' and 

 fading out below. The fourth band contains a blotch as large as the eye, which 

 passes slightly beneath the lateral line. A fifth band is under the last third of the 



