302 PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Color in life deep brassy yellow, scarcely paler below or darker above ; 

 head and body with about 12 conspicuous slightly wavy, longitudinal 

 stripes of sky-blue, deepest on the snout, each with a very narrow edge 

 of dusky olive ; these stripes on the head curving upward below eye, 

 the first stripe below eye forking near the posterior margin of preopercle 

 and inclosing an oblong area of the ground color; iris gilt, a dark spot 

 under the angle of preopercle; spinous dorsal, edged and shaded with 

 yellowish, its membrane mostly bluish. Soft dorsal yellowish; caudal 

 yellowish, broadly dusky at base, the degree of this duskiness being 

 variable; mouth deep orange within; pectorals pale yellowish; anal 

 and ventrals deeper yellowish. The young have more yellow on fins 

 and less on body, with traces of a dark caudal spot. The coloration be- 

 comes fainter in spirits, the blue lines becoming gray. 



Specimens from Cuba are slightly darker, but not otherwise ditterent. 

 Among them are two which evidently correspond to Bcemulon multilin- 

 eatum of Poey. These, in life, showed the following coloration : Clear 

 bright yellow, with brassy tinge, the stripes clear sky-blue, without 

 darker edge; iris yellow, no black at base of caudal. Mouth deep red, 

 no black under angle of preopercle ; fins yellow ; pectorals and ventrals 

 little yellow. Color in life notably different from that of Hcemulon set- 

 tirus, but the difference consists really in the absence of dusky shading, 

 and disappears entirely in spirits, these specimens being now scarcely 

 distinguishable from the ordinary sciurus. 



This species is common both at Key West and Havana, and is 

 known as " Yellow Grunt " or " Ronco Amarillo." It is sometimes 

 called ^'' Boar Grunt " by fishermen who imagine it to be the male of 

 R. plumieri. 



This species was first noticed by Bloch, who called it Anthias formo- 

 8us^ identifying it incorrectly with Perca formosa of Linnaeus. This 

 name is changed by Shaw, who, still supposing it to be Perca formosa 

 of Linnaeus, changes the name arbitrarily to Sparus sciurus, A fair 

 description and figure are given, taken, we believe, from Bloch. In our 

 opinion the name sciurus should be retained for the species, although so 

 far as Shaw was concerned its introduction was a piece of meddling im- 

 pertinence. Shaw's synonymy includes the Linnsean fish, and the name 

 sciurus is taken from the common name {Squirrel-fish) of the latter. 

 The species which he had in mind is, however, the present one, and it 

 had before him received no tenable specific name. This confusion was 

 first detected by Cuvier, who, however, failed to discriminate between 

 the Linnsean type {Serranus formosus) and the figure of Catesby (repre- 

 senting Hcemulon plumieri), referred by Linnaeus to the same species. 

 Cuvier called the species elegans. Later Poey, on the basis of inaccu- 

 racies in coloration in a plate representing H. elegans, has considered 

 the Cuban fish as distinct under the name of hiteum, while a pale vari- 

 ety discussed above has been called multilineatum. There is no doubt 

 that both these names should be regarded as synonyms of elegans. 



