I 9 4 PAPERS FROM TORTUGAS LABORATORY vol. xxxiv 



The collection contains a single specimen, 93 mm. long. This fish is now rather 

 dark brown above lateral line, shading into pale brown to straw color below; an 

 elongate dark spot on snout, just in advance of eye, and three broken wavy black 

 lines behind eye. In addition, the top of the head, the nape, and upper part of 

 side to base of 3d or 4th dorsal spine has distinct black dots. 



The scales are scarcely reduced in size before dorsal, there being five oblique 

 rows next to mid-line of nape. There are 2 canines anteriorly in upper jaw, and 

 4 in lower. 



West Indies to Florida and Bermuda. S. F. H. 



Halichoeres poeyi (Steindachner) 



fulis crotaphus Cuvier and Valenciennes (not of Cuvier), Hist. nat. poiss., vol. 13, 1839, 



p. 390 — Bahia. 

 Platyglossus poeyi Steindachner, (Sitzungsber. Acad. Wiss. Wien, vol. 56), Ichthyol. 



Notizen, No. 6, 1867, p. 49 — Surinam. 

 Iridio hjrschii Jordan and Evermann, Check list, 1896, p. 413 — Bahia; Bull. U. S. Nat. 



Mus., No. 47, pt. 2, 1898, p. 1598. 



This fish may be found singly, or by twos and threes, about Loggerhead Key, 

 but is more abundant on Long Key flats and inside Bird Key reef. In spite of the 

 fact that an occasional individual may be seen even on the isolated White Shoal, 

 where no turtle grass occurs, its preferred habitat is in Thalassia. 



TKe ground color, at a length of about 133 mm., is green above and yellow- 

 green below; head with a median rosy line from dorsal origin through inter- 

 orbital space, a pair of rosy lines running from tip of snout to upper border of 

 orbit, and a spot of like color on upper surface of eye, a line of the same color 

 running to lower border of orbit, another line extending from angle of mouth 

 back to opercular cleft; a dark spot behind eye; a U-shaped mark open forward 

 on opercle; a red streak following scale rows extending from upper margin of 

 opercle up and forward to meet its fellow on nape; each scale on back and sides 

 rosy on its posterior half, a few above pectoral fin blue at base, the rest green; an 

 oblique rosy bar before pectoral running down and back to belly, bounded an- 

 teriorly by a faint blue line, and posteriorly on fin base by a brighter blue one; 

 dorsal fin narrowly blue-margined, its ground color greenish yellow, with basal, 

 median, and submarginal lines of rosy red; a small dark spot at base of last ray; 

 anal with a fainter and narrower blue margin, rather less than its inner and 

 outer thirds rosy, and an intermediate yellow stripe. W. H. L. 



• 



The color has nearly all faded in 12 preserved specimens. The dark spot behind 

 the eye, however, which is vertically elongate, remains. A more or less distinct 

 dusky area is present on the tip of the snout, which is in part on the premaxil- 

 lary, and every one of the 12 specimens at hand has a small but distinct black 

 spot at base of last ray of dorsal. 



The scales before the dorsal are not greatly reduced, there being five rows next 

 to the mid-line of nape. The upper jaw has 2 canines anteriorly and the lower 

 jaw has 4. The caudal fin is rounded in the smaller specimens, but in the largest 



