PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 609 



with light blue ; an intense dark blue spot at upper angle of opercle, 

 surroimtled above and below with some greenish bronze margined with 

 a light blue line ; the green streak backwards and upwards from eye 

 tapers to a point anteriorly, and is margined by a <-shaped blue line; 

 lower jaw with two blue cross-bands; subopercle with two or three blue 

 spots or streaks ; branchiostegal membrane blue mesially. 



Dorsals narrowly margined with blue; below this a broad streak of 

 orange red ; then one of greeuishyellow, bordered below with blue (this 

 median streak distinctly black in one specimen); then a streak of pur- 

 plish, separated from the greenish-yellow area at base by an oblique 

 line running downwards and backwards on the membrane between 

 each two rays. Caudal with five concentric, more or less irregular, 

 bars alternately of reddish and of greenish-yellow margined with blue, 

 the bars strongly convex posteriorly; a terminal blue-black bar, much 

 widest at corners of flu; anal pinkish, with a broad median greenish 

 bar, margined above and below with blue ; the fin with a narrow blue 

 margin, and a blue spot at base of each ray; in a second specimen the 

 anal is greenish-yellow, with the median band lighter, and the blue 

 markings as described. Ventrals translucent, pinkish-brown towards 

 tips, with a blue streak before each ray; pectorals light bluish or green- 

 ish, without decided markings, light at base. 



Head = depth, 3J to 3J in length ; 2G or 27 pores in lateral line. 

 D. IX, 11; A. Ill, 12. 



Maxillary 34 in head ; teeth large, the posterior canines well devel- 

 oped. Eye C to 6| in head. 



Last rays of dorsal highest, scarcely reaching base of caudal, 2^ in 

 head. Caudal (from true base of rays) If in head; pectorals li|; ven- 

 trals If. 



Seven specimens were procured, from C to 7 inches in length. 

 93. Xyrichthys lineatus (Linn.) J. & G. 



Coryphama Uneafa Linn., Syst. Nat. (not Xyrichihijs Uncatns Cuv. & Val., 



xiv, 50). 

 '^. Xyricliihys martinieensis Cuv. & Val., xiv, 49. 

 Xyrichthys vermiculatus Poey, Mem. ii, 215. 



This species was not seen in life, but numerous specimens are in the 

 museum at Charleston, having been taken in the harbor, where it is 

 said to be not rare. We cannot doubt that this, and not X. lineatus C. 

 & v., is the species described by Linnteus as Conjpluma Uneafa. The 

 specimens described by Linnaeus w^ere sent from Cliarleston by Dr. Gar- 

 den; the color given agrees well with our fish, while •' lineatm C. & V." 

 has not "the dorsal and anal fins painted with lines." X. lineatus C. & Y. 

 has apparently not been seen since the original description, and there is 

 no probability that it reaches our coasts. No dift'erences have ever been 

 pointed out between our species and tbe Mediterranean X. novacula, but 

 Labroids are not as a rule fishes of wide distribution, and it is wiser to 

 retain our name until a comparison of the two forms has been made. 

 Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. 82 39 I?Iav l5l, 188S. 



