iQ4i CATALOGUE OF FISHES OF TORTUGAS 215 



The single mark which best distinguishes it is the color of its caudal fin, which 

 is more yellow than that of other parrot fishes. It is highly changeable in colora- 

 tion. Its color phases are plain, mottled, and striped. In the first the fish is tawny 

 olive above, lighter below; caudal orange-ochraceous, imperfectly banded; anal 

 poppy red; two conspicuous drab bars under lower jaw. It swims in this phase, 

 as it does in the striped, though the latter is displayed rather rarely, and par- 

 ticularly, I think, by small individuals. It is composed of dark median, ocular, 

 and pectoral stripes with light between. The mottled is pre-eminently a resting 

 phase. Two specimens of Sparisoma rubripinne show it in Reighard's plate 5, 

 figure 10 (Carnegie Inst. Wash. Pub. 103, 1908, facing p. 296). 



West Indies to Florida. W. H. L. 



Sparisoma pachycephalum Longley, new name 



(Plate 28, figure 2) 



Sparisoma flavescens (not of Bloch and Schneider) Jordan and Swain (part), Proc. U. S. 

 Nat. Mus., vol. 7, 1884, p. 92. Jordan (part), Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. 9, 1886, p. 47. 

 Bean (part), Bull. U. S. Fish Comm., vol. 8, 1888 (1890), p. 198. Jordan (part), Rept. 

 U. S. Fish Comm., pt. 15, 1887 (1891), p. 672. Jordan and Rutter (part), Proc. Acad. 

 Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, vol. 49, 1897, p. 119. Jordan and Evermann (part), Bull. U. S. 

 Nat. Mus., No. 47, pt. 2, 1898, p. 1639. Meek and Hildebrand, Field Mus. Nat. Hist., 

 Zool. Ser., vol. 15, pt. 3, 1928, p. 758. Jordan, Evermann, and Clark (part), Check list, 

 1930, P- 433- 



Under Sparisoma flavescens (Bloch and Schneider) and Sparisoma squalidum 

 (Poey), Meek and Hildebrand segregated two species which had long been con- 

 fused. These names, however, as Poey himself concluded (Enumeratio, 1875, 

 p. 113), appear to refer to a single species first figured by Parra (Desc. dif. piezas 

 hist, nat., 1787, p. 59, pi. 28, fig. 4) and named first by Bloch and Schneider, who 

 based their name on Parra's figure. 



Earlier (Repertorio, vol. 2, 1868, p. 349) Poey considered Scar us squalid us dis- 

 tinct from S. flavescens only because Senor Graells, a correspondent, wrote him 

 that the dorsal spines of the species he called by the latter name were flexible. 

 Earlier still (Repertorio, vol. 1, 1866, p. 376), Poey wrote that he was informed 

 that Parra's type, in Madrid, without posterior canines, was a fish 360 mm. in 

 length, exclusive of the caudal lobes, which were long. This is an observation 

 which, in the light of our present knowledge, would appear decisive. 1 Sparisoma 

 flavescens Meek and Hildebrand then lacks a name. 



Very common at Tortugas. Often it is especially common on one or two 



1 Sparisoma flavescens, which is Longley's pachycephalum, was described by Meek and 

 Hildebrand (see reference above) as having no lateral canines; with caudal rounded in 

 young, becoming notably concave, with angles "somewhat produced," in adults. Sparisoma 

 squalidum was described also as having no free canines; with caudal in adults concave, with 

 middle rays of about equal length, and "outer rays notably produced." In color the two 

 species, as understood by Meek and Hildebrand, differed prominently in the presence of a 

 jet-black spot at base of upper rays of pectoral in their squalidum, which their flavescens 

 lacked. Although Dr. Longley did not say so directly, it may be inferred that he considered 

 S. squalidum of Meek and Hildebrand equivalent to S. flavescens Bloch and Schneider, 

 which he did not report from Tortugas. — S. F. H. 



