i 94 i CATALOGUE OF FISHES OF TORTUGAS ^ 



Family EXOCOETIDAE. Flying Fishes 



A fairly full account, with key, of the flying fishes, based on a study made 

 principally at Tortugas, is given by C. M. Breder (Carnegie Inst. Wash. Pub. 

 435, 1932, p. 24) for each of the three species known from that vicinity. Breder's 

 nomenclature has been followed. S. F. H. 



Parexocoetus mesogaster (Bloch) 1 



The commonest of Tortugas flying fishes, and the most abundantly repre- 

 sented fish in the waste, and presumably in the food, of the Bird Key tern colony. 

 Information concerning its habits and development may be found in Breder's 

 paper to which reference is made above. W. H. L. 



Dr. Longley did not find the opportunity to prepare a color description which 

 he evidently intended to add, as shown by a marginal note. Only the following 

 appears among his field data: "Dorsal surface to line of level of lower pectoral 

 base indigo blue. Iris, cheek, pectoral base, sides, and belly gleaming silver. Pec- 

 torals transparent with only a suggestion of blue." 



Caribbean Sea, sometimes straying northward and southward. S. F. H. 



Halocypselus evolans (Linnaeus) 2 



Dr. Longley mentions in his field notes "a single specimen found by C. M. 

 Breder among several thousand of the common flying fishes (Parexocoetus 

 mesogaster and Cypselurus jurcatus) from Bird Key, where they had been 

 dropped by terns breeding there." 



Breder (Carnegie Inst. Wash. Pub. 435, 1932, p. 22) stated that this species was 

 seen in flight occasionally between Key West and Tortugas, Florida, and con- 

 tinued: "The only specimens from the latter locality were found as fragments 

 left by the terns of Bird Key." 



This flying fish seems to be allied to Parexocoetus mesogaster, at least in that 

 the ventral fins are not greatly enlarged, as in Cypselurus jurcatus. It differs from 

 the former notably in having longer pectorals, which reach beyond the end of 

 the dorsal base. It differs from both in having the ventrals inserted nearer the 

 tip of the snout than the base of the caudal. A color plate is included in a publi- 

 cation by Nichols and Breder (Zoologica, vol. 8, no. 7, 1928, p. 427, fig. 172). 



Caribbean Sea, sometimes straying northward and southward. S. F. H. 



Cypselurus furcatus (Mitchill) 



The young were found rather commonly within the lagoon singly or in 

 schools among the drifting Sargassum and Cymodocea. Fragments of this species 

 were abundant also in the waste of the Bird Key tern colony. 



1 Recently it has been found that mesogaster is not available for any Parexocoetus. It 

 accordingly becomes P. brachypterus Richardson (see Breder, Bull. Bingham Oceanog. Coll., 

 vol. 6, art. 5, 1938, pp. 16-28). — S. F. H. 



2 Anton Bruun ("Flying Fishes [Exocoetidae] of the Atlantic," Dana Rept. No. 6, 1935, 

 p. 28) referred this species to Exocoetus volitans Linnaeus, a procedure followed by Breder 

 (Bull. Bingham Oceanog. Coll., vol. 6, art. 5, 1938, p. 30).— S. F. H. 



