THE FOOD AND GAME FISHES OF NEW YORK. 417 



English as the aya and to the Brazilians as the garanJia. Elsewhere in the descrip- 

 tion the general color is said to be red, the back dark red, and the belly silvery. 

 This is all the information to be derived from Bloch's account of the species, and if 

 the data mentioned are to be relied upon, the fish is certainly not our Red Snapper. 

 We have no other knowledge concerning the aya of Brazil. It has not been shown 

 that our species ranges so far south and several red forms resembling L. black f or di 

 are associated with it. Various interpretations of the aya have appeared in ichthyo- 

 logical works. Dr. Giinther, in his Catalogue of Fishes in the British Museum, vol. I, 

 page 198, adopts the name for a small-scaled Lutjanus, which has 65 scales in the 

 lateral line and 32 in a transverse series. - Of this he has a fine specimen from South 

 America. A very curious translation of the earlier descriptions of the aya is to be 

 found in Lacepede's account of the species, which is given below. The diagnostic 

 characters are stated as follows : 



Nine spines and 18 articulated rays in the dorsal ; I spine and 8 divided rays in 

 the anal ; the caudal crescent-shaped ; each opercle terminating in a long and flat 

 spine ; the general color red ; the back blood color ; the belly silvery. 

 The author, in another part of his Natural History of Fishes, writes : 

 A figure of the aya has been published by Marcgrave, Piso, Willughby, Johnston, 

 Ruysch, the prince of Nassau [Maurice] and Bloch, who has copied the drawing of 

 Prince Maurice. It is found in lakes of Brazil. It frequently reaches a length of i 

 meter, and it is so plentiful that large numbers of this species are salted or sun-dried 

 for export. It may be very desirable and, perhaps, sufficiently easy to acclimatize 

 this large and beautiful bodianus, the flesh of which is very agreeable to the taste, 

 in the fresh waters of Europe, and particularly in lakes and ponds of France. 



117. Pig Fish ; Hog Fish (Orthopristis cJirysopterus Linnaeus). 



Labnis fiilroinaculatus MITCHILL, Trans. Lit. & Phil. Soc. N. Y., 1,406, 1815, New York. 

 Haemiilon fulvo macula turn DEK.AY, N. Y. Fauna, Fishes, 84, pi. 7, fig. 21, 1842, New 



York. 

 Orthopristis chrysopterus BEAN, Bull. U. S. F. C., VII, 142, pi. Ill, fig. n, 1888; BEAN, 



Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., IX, 366, 1897; JORDAN & EVERMANN, Bull, 47, U. S. 



Nat. Mus., 1338, 1898, pi. CCX, fig. 541, 1900. 



Light brown, silvery below ; sides with numerous orange colored and yellow 

 spots; those above the lateral line in oblique series, those below in horizontal; 

 vertical fins with similar spots ; head bluish with yellow spots ; angle of mouth and 

 gill membranes with orange. 



The Pig Fish ranges along the Atlantic coast from New York southward ; adult 

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