194 1 CATALOGUE OF FISHES OF TORTUGAS ^5 



{ibid., vol. 3, 1868, p. 876) definitely referred the first to synonymy under the 

 second name. Since Giinther's view was correct (see Canestrini, Arch, zool., vol. 

 1, 1861, p. 45; Liitken, Spolia atlantica, 1880, p. 590), Dactylopterus, by choice of 

 the first reviewer, whether Owen or Canestrini, becomes the correct name of 

 the genus. 1 W. H. L. 



Dactylopterus volitans (Linnaeus) 



The young, up to 45 mm., were included in the waste of the tern colony. They 

 also came at night to a submerged light south of Tortugas, where 6 were taken 

 in about an hour. 



It may rest on the bottom on the tips of the ventral and anal fins, or "walk" 

 forward or backward equally well by advancing or withdrawing one ventral and 

 the other alternately. The small anterior lobe of the pectoral, with 5 short rays, 

 may be moved independently of the great posterior lobe, with 30 rays, of which 

 the longest is more than half the total length of the fish and reaches base of caudal. 



It has been said at least since the time of Artedi that this fish flies. The state- 

 ment seems scarcely credible, as the rays of the pectoral are so thin and flexible 

 that the fin droops almost of its own weight. 



Adults reach a length of at least 300 mm., and are so rare that I have noticed 

 little more than that their coloration is changeable. Their shade varies with that 

 of their surroundings. They rest in a pattern of bands. In the aquarium the an- 

 terior pectoral lobe is always expanded, with upper surface mottled or marbled 

 in colors like those of back; posterior lobe trailed strapwise by the side like a 

 folded fan, thrust straight out from the side still closed, or flung wide open with 

 its rays extended and all its membranes taut. The folded fin is marked from 

 border to border with dark and light bars quite sharply defined; the open fin 

 with a broad dark field, half the whole fin surface, with perhaps two lines of 

 vivid blue concurrent with one another and with the fin margin, and with several 

 rows of blue spots nearer base of fin, the light spots, which form bars in the 

 closed fin, now well separated. In a half-grown specimen, the under side of the 

 pectoral was slightly dusky toward the outer and inner borders of the great lobe, 

 the median sector most brightly colored above and unspotted white underneath. 



W. H. L. 



In a small specimen, 52 mm. long, the pectoral fins are scarcely enlarged, 

 reaching only opposite the 3d or 4th ray of the second dorsal. In a specimen 85 

 mm. long, however, they already reach somewhat beyond the base of the caudal. 



On both coasts of the Atlantic. S. F. H. 



Family POMACENTRIDAE 



Chromis multilineatus (Guichenot) 



Several full-grown individuals were seen at two widely separated stations on 



rocky bottom east of East Key, and only 3 small ones about Loggerhead Key. 



Color grayish; creamy spot as large as pupil on caudal peduncle just behind 



1 For information in this paragraph I am indebted to Dr. G. S. Myers. 



