i 9 4i CATALOGUE OF FISHES OF TORTUGAS gj 



There are several modifications of the banded phase. First, the young, up to 

 150 or 200 mm. in length, may have the ocular stripe produced backward to inter- 

 sect the dorsal fin, the general color of the fish then being wholly olive above the 

 lower margin of the stripe and creamy below and behind it. Or the ocular stripe 

 may terminate abruptly opposite the nape, and the V of the upper part of the 

 first body stripe may be visible as an independent marking, the ventral and pos- 

 terior parts of the body being light and plain as before. Sometimes in the first- 

 mentioned phase the young may be active, but they may also show it at rest. 

 Again, there is a phase, rarely shown, in which the ocular stripe instead of being 

 the darkest may be the lightest on the body. Finally, there is a phase observed 

 only once, in two well grown individuals. These approached each other snout to 

 snout and finally lay with their heads overlapped, and rubbing their bodies to- 

 gether. They showed intensely dark ocular stripes, and the V of the first body 

 stripe, but the bodies below these were very white, and exactly alike in the two. 

 Judging from the behavior of the fish, this particular showing of color is largely 

 dependent on an internal factor, and seems to typify changes observed by Dr. 

 Townsend in the New York Aquarium, and ascribed by him, perhaps correctly, 

 to the psychic state of the fish displaying them. 



Atlantic coast of tropical America, common in the West Indies and the Florida 

 Keys, sometimes straying northward. W. H. L. 



Epinephelus guttatus (Linnaeus). Red hind 



Reported by Jordan and Thompson (Bull. U. S. Bur. Fish., vol. 24, 1904 

 (1905), p. 239) as Epinephelus maculosus, but certainly rare in shallow water. 

 I have not seen it. W. H. L. 



At Key West this grouper is fairly common in the market, being taken with 

 hook and line at moderate depths. 

 Atlantic coast of tropical America to Florida, sometimes straying northward. 



S.F.H. 



Promicrops itaiara (Lichtenstein). Jewfish 



Usually found on the bottom about the greater coral stacks, under ledges of the 

 old shore line, and about sunken wrecks. 



Food includes the spiny lobster, or crawfish. One fish was seen with the craw- 

 fish's antennae still protruding from its mouth as digestion of the hinder part 

 proceeded. 



The pattern is a blotched one, the shade being variable, but whether there are 

 adaptive changes in color was not determined. W. H. L. 



This is a food fish of some importance at Key West, where large individuals 

 often are "hitched" to stakes in shallow water with shark hooks in their mouths, 

 awaiting disposal in the market. 



Atlantic coast of tropical America, northward to Florida. S. F. H. 



