2 2o PAPERS FROM TORTUGAS LABORATORY vol. xxxiv 



This is, indeed, the phase in which the larger specimens commonly appear, the 

 white band being an ill-defined light blaze on the side, including the pectoral. 

 But even the larger ones sometimes, and the small ones usually, show the colora- 

 tion ascribed to P. gnat hod us, that is, brown, with a clear brown line along the 

 middle of the trunk and another along the lower part of the belly. 



When the transition from the acutus to the gnathodus pattern occurs, a dark 

 stripe comes in through the pectoral base in the area of the light blaze. The fish 

 may swim or feed in the striped phase, but the correspondence of either of the 

 two phases mentioned, or of the self-colored phase which results when the blaze 

 is reduced, to any particular state of activity has not been determined. 



West Indies to Florida. W. H. L. 



Pseudoscarus guacamaia (Cuvier) 



Gnacamaia Parra, Desc. dif. piezas hist, nat., 1787, p. 54, pi. 26 — Cuba. 



Scants guacamaia Cuvier, Regne animal, 2d ed., vol. 2, 1829, p. 265 (based on Parra). 



Scarus twchesius Cuvier and Valenciennes, Hist. nat. poiss., vol. 14, 1839, p. 134 — Puerto 



Rico. 

 Scants pleiamts Poey, Memorias, vol. 2, 1861, p. 393 (based on S. guacamaia Cuvier and 



Valenciennes). 



The name Scarus pleiamts was proposed by Poey for a fish he had not seen, 

 but of which he read that it occurred in St. Thomas and had freely projecting 

 posterior canines in the upper jaw. This fish had been identified from a skin by 

 Valenciennes as guacamaia. The presence of canines was a matter of consequence 

 to Poey, though not to Valenciennes, because Poey knew that the Cuban species, 

 which Cuvier, without seeing any specimen, had called Scarus guacamaia, usually 

 if not always lacked such teeth. But, apart from its faded colors, the century-old 

 skin in Paris seems that of normal 5. guacamaia in all but its teeth. It seems to 

 be a large and old fish, displaying in its teeth an individual variation or a mark 

 of its age. 



This fish is among the least abundant of the family at Tortugas, but far from 

 rare. It was seen at the beach rocks below the east lighthouse dock, in 4 or 5 feet 

 of water under submerged dead mangroves at the beach on Boca Grande, and 

 elsewhere, but in general it is most numerous and the largest individuals are 

 found at the offshore coral heads below the east lighthouse dock, the great reef 

 patch farthest up the Loggerhead shoal, the heads just within the tip of Bush 

 Key, and places along the outer face of Bird Key reef. 



In coloration the adults are more brilliant than the young and usually appear 

 ^ in a phase in which the red or reddish brown of the head shades into green over 

 the body. The only change observed was in shade. On a specimen 450 mm. long, 

 first seen resting under a coral head, the red, particularly on the head, became 

 brighter as the fish swam away, whereas others became paler over a bottom of 

 sand. The red and green did not disappear, however, but were only dimmed. 

 But in the New York Aquarium I have seen the young, up to at least 300 mm. 

 in length, in a mottled phase. 



