124 PAPERS FROM TORTUGAS LABORATORY vol. xxxiv 



This species is variable in appearance. Lurking in crevices among the corals it 

 may be dusky gray or darker, with brassy spots. In the open it is lighter. The 

 brassy pattern on its head is one of coarse blotches rather than clear-cut stripes. 

 The mouth is wholly light red within. W. H. L. 



This species was first reported from United States waters (Tortugas) by Dr. 

 Longley (Carnegie Inst. Wash. Year Book No. 21, 1922, p. 171). It ranges from 

 Argentina to the Florida Keys. S. F. H. 



Haemulon parra (Desmarest). Sailor's choice 



(Plate 13, figures 1, 2; plate 14, figure 1) 



Common, though not as abundant as Haemulon sciurus and H. plumieri. 

 Single individuals or small groups are widely distributed, but great numbers 

 have been observed at only a few places. The preferred schooling grounds appear 

 to be the bare bottoms about the greater masses of coral on the reefs. 



This grunt, like the others of its genus, feeds almost wholly at night. The 

 stomachs of specimens taken in the early morning were well filled, containing 

 much sand, with algae, mollusks, and annelids. 



These fish are more greedy, more stupid, or less sensitive than gray snappers 

 to the sting of the medusa, Cassiopea. Before beginning to refuse them they will 

 eat many small fishes made unpalatable by sewing bits of the jellyfish tentacles 

 in their mouths. 



The sailor's choice is usually seen in a plain gray phase with countershading. 

 It is darker near heads of coral, or low down above gorgonians, than it is out 

 over bare bottom away from them. It may occasionally be seen swimming high 

 above the bottom, when it may be very gray, retaining only a faint touch of 

 yellow above the eye. At dusk it may also be seen in its palest phase over the 

 sand near shore. It also has a striped phase, in which stripes and a caudal spot 

 are well developed on a gray ground. This is shown most often by the younger 

 fish, and infrequently by full-grown ones. Some, about 350 mm. long, on leaving 

 dark beach rock and swimming over clear sand, not only at once reduced the 

 size and intensity of the dark spots on their scales, but put off the dark lines of 

 this striped pattern. The peritoneum is black; the mouth orange within. 



Brazil to Florida. W. H. L. 



Haemulon carbonarium Poey. Caesar grunt 



(Plate 14, figure 1) 



This species occurs not uncommonly in small schools about the coral stacks. 



It feeds at night like the other grunts. Of 5 taken at 5:30 a.m., 3 contained no 

 food; 2 had fed on small crabs, gastropods, starfish, and annelid worms. No 

 feeding was noticed by day. 



Marked changes in shade occur when the fish leaves the shelter of the coral 

 heads to rest over the bare bottom. In the duskiest phase the fins and ventral 

 side of the body, well up to the level of the dorsal margin of the pectoral base, 



