372 PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



bead. Mouth large, the maxillary reaching to beyond eye, 1^ in head 

 (in adult). Teeth in moderate bands ; two strong, nearly vertical canines 

 in front of each jaw. Eye 9|- in head (adult).- 



luterorbital space strongly convex, its breadth 4^ in head. Preoper- 

 cle forming a regular curve, without salient angle, the emargination 

 near its angle very slight. Nostrils roundish, close together, subequal. 



Scales rather small, chiefly cycloid. Dorsal spines rather slender and 

 low, the third spine 3f in head. Caudal fin subtruncate when spread 

 open, its outer rays very slightly produced, 1| in head ; the rays of the 

 fin projecting slightly beyond the membranes. Anal high and rounded, 

 its longest rays 2| in head. Pectoral reaching slightly beyond tips of 

 ventrals, 2f in head. 



Color of fresh specimen, rather bright dark-purplish gray, scarcely 

 paler below, rather darkest along top of head and sides of back. Chin 

 dark. A few obscure paler rivulations on belly, sides, and especially 

 on breast. Head and body everywhere covered very evenly with round, 

 close-set spots of a bright bronze orange. These spots are mostly 

 broader than the interspaces, and have an average diameter about equal 

 to that of a nostril. These are obscure on lower part of head and body, 

 but there are traces of such spots almost everywhere. The spots are 

 most distinct on head, and they cover the dark part of the eye. On the 

 lower jaw the spots are oblong and more closely set. About 23 s])ots 

 in a straight line from eye to angle of preopercle. Spots on the body 

 are usually arranged one to each scale, the average diameter being con- 

 siderably less than that of a scale. None of them on the body are as 

 large as the scale. The bases of the pectoral, anal, and caudal are simi- 

 larly spotted. Dorsal dark olive-brown, the distal half of the soft dorsal 

 black. Caudal and anal colored like the soft dorsal, the black on the 

 caudal paler, the latter without the narrow pale edge of the dorsal and 

 anal. Pectorals and ventrals brownish, blackish tow^ards the tips, the 

 pectoral with a grayish edge and no yellow. A dusky moustache on 

 preorbital, along edge of maxillary ; membrane of region concealed by 

 maxillarj^ covered with very bright orange spots. Angle of mouth on 

 lower jaw largely yellowish-green, with some dull orange. 



Mycteroperea bonaci is abundant about Key West, where it is known 

 as Black Grouper, being the only species to which that name is applied. 

 It reaches a weight of 50 pounds. The young are taken along the shore 

 in the seine. The species is about equally common at Havana, where 

 it is known as Bonaci arard. 



Poey has already recognized his arard, decimalis, cyclopomatus, and 

 latepictus as synonyms of his brunneus. But we see nothing of any im- 

 portance to distinguish his bonaci from brunneus, and adopt the former 

 name as the oldest for the species, which, notwithstanding its abundance, 

 does not seem to have been named by earlier authors. Poey's Triso- 

 tropis aguaji, distinguished only by the olivaceous yellow color of the 

 base of the soft dorsal, is almost certainly the same. If our identification 



