I9 8 PAPERS FROM TORTUGAS LABORATORY vol. xxxiv 



off their yellow color. I have seen as many as 24 swimming together 4 or 5 feet 

 above the gorgonian tops, some of which had continuous, some discontinuous 

 stripes, but when they were induced to come down to bottom they put on their 

 nitidissimum yellow. With them were fish in the full bifasciatum pattern and 

 some intermediates. 



The young were frequently seen pecking at other fishes, such as tangs, chubs, 

 and sometimes pomacentrids, but most commonly at Caranx ruber. There is no 

 obvious explanation of this behavior, unless they were relieving these fishes of 

 ectoparasites. I did not, however, find such creatures in their stomachs. These 

 young parasite-pickers, if their actions are correctly interpreted, may be seen in 

 action daily at the same place, and continue this practice until the change to< 

 adult coloration occurs in the male. 



Small crustaceans seem to provide the greater part of their food. 



West Indies to Florida. W. H. L. 



Doratonotus megalepis Giinther 



Doratonotits megalepis Giinther, Cat. fish. Brit. Mus., vol. 4, 1862, p. 125 — St. Kitts. 

 Doratonotus decoris Evermann and Marsh, Rept. U. S. Fish Comm., pt. 25, 1899 (1900), 



p. 354 — Ponce, Puerto Rico; Bull. U. S. Fish Comm., vol. 20, pt. 1, 1900 (1902), p. 234,. 



pi. 29. 

 Doratonotus boe\ei Metzelaar, Trop. atl. Vissch., 1919, p. 107, fig. 31 — Curacao; Bonaire. 



There seems to be sexual dimorphism, and there surely is decided change in 

 appearance with age. Hence the species has some names which must be placed 

 in synonymy. 



Specimens up to 70 mm. in length were seined rather frequently in the turtle 

 grass. The species was not noticed elsewhere. In an aquarium it differed from 

 other labrids in showing no inclination to bury itself in sand at night. 



The young show rather clearly on a gray ground, suffused with green, a pat- 

 tern of darker green longitudinal stripes, consisting of a supraocular and an 

 ocular stripe, to which is added a little later another through the pectoral base, 

 and all are clouded or blotched rather than of uniform color; pectorals and 

 caudal colorless; other vertical fins largely of the color of body. 



With growth three or four transverse brown bars develop beneath throat; the 

 darker lines on body show a penciling of brown along their borders, particularly 

 in the region of their earlier cloudiness, and brown begins to appear on the ver- 

 tical fins. 



The breeding season includes the greater part of June and at least all of July. 

 Females only 37 mm. long with the abdomen greatly distended by their ovaries 

 were seen. All females noticed were much smaller and duller in color than the 

 males occurring with them. Having attained sexual maturity, females perhaps 

 grow only a little larger, and change little in coloration. The males, however, 

 grow considerably larger, and as they grow change much in appearance. Their 

 green grows more vivid, and the original gray ground color becomes broken up 

 into mere flecks spotting the green; the brown on the head becomes more rosy, 

 on the body more diffuse, but still for a time forms irregular vertical bands or 



