NOTES ON A YOUNG RED SNAPPER (LUTJANUS BLACKFORDI), 

 FROM GREAT SOUTH BAY, LONG ISLAND. 



Br TARLETON II. BEAN, in. D. 



On the 26th of October, 1887, Mr. E. G. Blackford, Fish Commis- 

 sioner of the State of New York, forwarded to the National Museum 

 a young Red Snapper, 4i inches long, which was caught in Great South 

 Bay, at Bay Shore, Long Island. This is the smallest Red Snapper that 

 we have obtained, and it is the first record of the occurrence of the 

 species so far north. The specimen has been catalogued as 39213 of 

 the Museum fish register. 



As in otfeer young fishes the size of the eye, the length of the head, 

 and the colors are different from these characters in the adult. 



It is perhaps in order for me to state that I am not convinced of the 

 propriety of substituting any one of the several names whose claims to 

 priority over hlackfordi have l)een urgently pressed by some other 

 ichthyological authors. I have not seen the type of Mesoprion campe- 

 chianus, Poey, but the description of that species certainly does not 

 agree with the Red Snapper identified with Mr. Blackford's name. As 

 for Mesoprion vivamis (Cuv. & VaL), that is a very different fish, and the 

 name aya of Bloch has long been relegated to the shades of obscurity, 

 and it is doubtful if we will ever know for what specits it was intended. 



A description of the colors of the fresh fish follows : 



A dark band nearly as wide as the diameter of the eye is placed im- 

 mediately in front of the spinous dorsal ; it fades out about the median 

 line of the body. Three similar bands, and of like size, under the dor- 

 sals, separated by narrow interspaces and fading out below. The fourth 

 band contains a blotch as large as the eye, which passes slightly beneath 

 the lateral line. A fifth band is under the last third of the soft dorsal 

 and continues backward to the caudal, not descending below the lateral 

 line. The second and third bands are traversed vertically by a narrow 

 median stripe of the rosy body color. Membrane of dorsals and caudal 

 with a narrow blackedge. Spine and external ray of ventral milk-white. 

 Anal rosy, except membrane of first two spines and last three rays, 

 which is milk-white. 



Proceedings U. S. Natioual Museum, Vol. X. 

 512 



