g 2 PAPERS FROM TORTUGAS LABORATORY vol. xxxiv 



Family CENTROPOMIDAE. Snooks 

 Centropomus undecimalis (Bloch) 



One female, 825 mm. long, was taken at the west shore of Loggerhead Key. 

 The green of the dorsal side of the head extended to the tip of the strongly pro- 

 jecting lower jaw. W. H. L. 



Though Dr. Longley reported this fish as new to the fauna of Tortugas (Car- 

 negie Inst. Wash. Year Book No. 25, 1926, p. 241), there is an earlier record by 

 Jordan and Thompson (Bull. U. S. Bur. Fish., vol. 24, 1904 (1905), p. 239) under 

 the name Oxylabrax undecimalis. 



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



Family SERRANIDAE. Sea Basses 

 Petrometopon cruentatus (Lacepede). Coney 



Not uncommon on caverned bottom east of East Key; occurs also among coral 

 heads in the reef patches on Loggerhead bank. 



Where observed in the field, this fish usually remained under cover in a phase 

 uniformly dark, except as small brown spots might be seen through the dark 

 ground color. Sometimes it was lighter when exposed for a short or long time. 

 In the aquarium it appeared in a banded phase; soft dorsal and caudal with 

 narrow white margins, and a submarginal dark band slightly less than diameter 

 of pupil; entire body covered with small brown spots, darker at center, and 

 smaller on head, smallest of all on dorsal surface of eye; alternating dark and 

 light lines on head; two dark bands under spinous dorsal, two under soft dorsal, 

 and one imperfectly defined on caudal peduncle; the four under dorsal showing 

 a tendency toward doubling. 



Petrometopon cruentatus coronatus (Cuvier and Valenciennes) seems no more 

 than a transitory color phase of this species. 



Atlantic coast of tropical America, northward to Florida. W. H. L. 



Cephalopholis fulvus (Linnaeus). Guativere or niggerfish 



Labrus fulvus Linnaeus, Syst. nat., 10th ed., 1758, p. 287 — Bahamas (after Catesby). 

 Perca punctata Linnaeus, ibid., p. 291 — Bahamas (based on Catesby). 

 Gymnocephalus ruber Bloch and Schneider, Syst. ichth., 1801, p. 346, pi. 67. 

 Cephalopholis fulvus ruber and Cephalopholis fulvus punctatus Jordan, Evermann, and 

 Clark, Check list, 1930, p. 309. 



This fish is rare at Tortugas, where only one specimen, 130 mm. long, taken at 

 10 fathoms, was secured. 



The commonly accepted varieties are color phases. The 130-mm. specimen 

 taken at Tortugas was in a bright yellow phase. In life the coloration, as observed 

 in Puerto Rico, is highly changeable, the fish often appearing brown above the 

 level of the tip of the snout and the posterior part of the soft dorsal, an area 

 including the eye; the color below and behind this being light cream, with blue 



