1941 CATALOGUE OF FISHES OF TORTUGAS 12 J 



ing to be divided throughout their length by thinner lines of the same blue that 

 separates them. Posteriorly the dark stripes are lost in the checkered pattern of 

 dark and light which covers the body. The whole appears in a shade that matches 

 the surroundings. Over sand near coral heads, even the darkest brassy spots may 

 fade until they are little deeper than straw color. But in and over the corals, 

 duskiness suffuses them until the fish's brassy olive cast repeats that of the corals 

 themselves. Browns that are nearly uniform, except for countershading, match 

 the dark Plexauras when the resting fish is hidden among their branches. 



In a less common phase this fish is marked broadly with three dark lines which 

 are not as sharply delimited from the light background as they are in other 

 species of the genus. In still another phase appearing sometimes in fish in tanks, 

 which is hinted at rather than clearly developed in resting fish on the reefs, a 

 blotchy pattern of dark and light is shown. Two fish gaping at and pushing each 

 other gave, in contrastive brown and silver, the most perfect exhibition of this 

 phase observed. In passing I note that the common grunt indulges in these dis- 

 plays of pugnacity toward yellow grunts as well as others of its own kind. 



Brazil to Florida, sometimes straying northward. W. H. L. 



Haemulon flavolineatum (Desmarest). French grunt 



This fish may be found along ledges of beach rock, among gorgonians on 

 rocky bottom, and most commonly about patches of massive or branching coral. 



Although the French grunt will feed by day, n specimens taken at 5:00 p.m. 

 were empty, suggesting that little feeding is done except at night. 



Sometimes it is scarcely darker than straw color, but changes in shade occur 

 when it passes from sandy bottom into the immediate neighborhood of corals. 

 The fish sometimes displays alternating bluish and brassy lines, those on the side 

 above and behind the pectoral fin running up and backward at an angle of 

 nearly 45°. At other times the dominant elements in its coloration are dark lines, 

 its ocular stripe of the width of the pupil contrasting sharply with the lighter 

 color of the iris above and below. At other times, as when the fish rests near 

 bottom in tanks, its pattern is one of blotches or irregular bands; but no fish so 

 marked has been seen in the field. 



Grunts of this species, like some of the others, are accustomed to face and push 

 one another with open mouths. It was noticed that in one instance a pair so 

 engaged were in the common light unstriped phase. 



Brazil to Florida. W. H. L. 



Bathystoma aurolineatum (Cuvier and Valenciennes) 



Eighteen specimens, with many other fishes, were taken with the otter trawl 

 in 40 fathoms, south of Tortugas. 

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



Bathystoma rimator (Jordan and Swain). Tomtate 



Tomtates school by day about the coral stacks and elsewhere. The relations of 

 this species with the coral are, however, less intimate than those of some other 

 Haemulidae. 



