1941 CATALOGUE OF FISHES OF TORTUGAS 2I y 



The type of Scarus bollmani is a partly digested fish from the stomach of 

 Epinephelus morio caught off Tampa Bay. Its color has faded and its few re- 

 maining scales show nothing distinctive, but the description of its color pattern 

 while it was still decipherable seems to identify it with S. punctulatus. Like S. 

 punctulatus ; it has 2 scales in the third row on the cheek; not two rows only, as 

 stated in the original description. Its coloration was very much like that of 

 punctulatus; it even had the median row of blue spots on the anal fin. In the 

 synonymy of Scarus punctulatus, S. bollmani may rest for the present, though 

 with the understanding that north of the Florida Strait S. punctulatus seems not 

 to grow large, is perhaps a little brighter in color, and probably develops fewer 

 posterior canines. 



This species is surpassed in numbers at Tortugas by none of the genus except 

 S. croicensis. When actively moving about in the field it has a green stripe run- 

 ning horizontally from upper angle of opercle to dorsal margin of orbit and 

 thence forward to meet its fellow of the opposite side, rather definitely continued 

 posterior to opercle to base of caudal; a second stripe similar and parallel to the 

 first, extending from below posterior angle of opercle beneath eye to angle of 

 mouth, there dividing into branches following upper and lower lips, sometimes 

 carried backward on body. If the lower stripe is not well developed, a notable red 

 patch on side above and behind pectoral, reaching vertical of vent, is present. 

 When the stripe is distinct, the red patch, split lengthwise, is largely suppressed 

 and dorsal, ocular, and pectoral dark stripes, separated by light ones, are present. 

 The fish is browner among brown algae and gorgonians, grayer over sandy 

 bottom. Its changes in shade, however, are not nearly as pronounced as those of 

 some other species. One fish in a blotched phase was seen on the reef. 



West Indies to Florida. W. H. L. 



Scarus caeruleus (Bloch). Blue parrot fish 



Rather widely distributed at Tortugas. It may come in to the very shore, where 

 it is rocky; occasionally seen about the sparsely scattered coral patches on Bird 

 Key flats, but more commonly observed feeding with other parrot fish along the 

 reefs paralleling the western shore of Loggerhead Key. The largest individuals, 

 however, with a great bump on the snout and strongly exserted angles to the 

 caudal, generally were seen only near deep water at such places as the Palythoa- 

 covered ledges where Long and Bush keys meet, or at the northern end of 

 White Shoal. 



Feeding is almost continuous throughout the day. The food is usually taken a 

 little at a time as the fish browse over the bottom, but near the dock at Fort 

 Jefferson a mixed school of blue parrot fish and guacamaias repeatedly swam in 

 from the channel and went off with mouthfuls of filamentous algae. Although 

 sometimes the fish take food whose nature is obvious, I have seen them feeding 

 actively on what seemed a perfectly bare sand patch, taking up mouthful after 

 mouthful of fine sand, grinding it to powder in their pharyngeal apparatus, and 

 treating the whole with their digestive juices, presumably for the microscopic 

 food in it. 



