MASTERS OF THE WATER-BONY FISHES 267 



Identification: This is a brilliantly marked species which shows great varia- 

 tion in intensity of color, matching the lightness or darkness of the bottom, but 

 which always has iridescent blue stripes on the head and an iridescent blue tail 

 base. The back is usually blue to green and the throat and belly orange. The 

 adults have the soft dorsal fin and corners of the tail fin elongated into long 

 filaments. 



Hahits: This is a fish of hard bottoms and reefs. It is usually seen singly and 

 acts much like some angelfishes, such as the rock beauty, in its almost sinuous 

 movements. Its lustrous colors are shown off to great advantage as it swims in 

 and out of holes in reefs. 



Similar Sj^ecies: The ocean triggerfish or turbot, Canthidermis sahaco Cfig. 

 148'), is a uniform dark gray and swims just fast enough to keep out of the reach 

 of the swimmer, chieflv around outer reefs. It is insatiably curious. The authors 

 have chased them away just to see how long it would take them to return. As 

 soon as they were ignored, back they would come to look the situation over. This 

 is one of the largest triggerfishes, reaching 2 feet and ranging through the West 

 Indies and off Florida. 



The Pacific triggerfish, Verriincidiis iwlylepis,. is another very large species 

 reachmg 2 feet or more in length. It varies from dark to light brown in color and 

 is found from Catalina Island to Baja California. 



A very pretty East Indian and West Mexican species, of predominantly violet 

 coloration and with dark lines on the cheeks and longitudinal rows of blue spots 

 on the sides, is Xanthichthys lineopunctatiis. It reaches 10 inches and rarelv 

 strays as far north as San Diego. 



FILEFISHES: Family Monocanthidae 



These are degenerate offshoots of the triggerfishes in which the dorsal fin has 

 been reduced to one long spine. The skin is rough and was formerly used as 

 shagreen. The ventral outline is even more bizarre than in triggerfishes, some- 

 times being anteriorly very deep. With the change in shape of the dorsal and 

 anal fins, to low and long rather than high and pointed as in triggerfishes, there 

 is a change in the method of propulsion. Waves pass down these fins toward 

 the rear to move the fish slowly forward (/ig. 149). The tail fin, though large, is 

 kept motionless and folded and is usually not used at all. The very small mouth, 

 often at the end of a long snout, is used to graze over pilings for both plant and 

 animal substances. Most of these fishes keep to the protection of wharfs, rocks, 

 or reefs and assume odd positions, head up or down, reminiscent of the trumpet- 

 fish, as they graze over the rocks or pilings for food. They are found in all tropical 

 and some warm temperate seas. 



ORANGE filefish: Alutcru schoeffi— Color Plate 9 



Size: Averages under a foot. Reaches 2 feet. 



Distribution: West Indies to Maine and Texas. 



Identification: The color is a mottled orange to brown or olivaceous. It is cov- 

 ered with dark spots. 



Hahits: This is a typical fish of inshore rocks, pilings, and seaweed. So slow, 

 awkward, and unfishlike are its movements and so close to rocks does it stay, 

 that it can quite easily be overlooked. The adults usually prefer inshore waters, 



