Jordan and Evermann. — Fishes of North America. 1309 



last rays when depressed; second anal spine but little longer than third, 

 20 in head, the two more nearly equal than usual in this genus, their tips, 

 when depressed, reaching middle of last ray ; ventrals If in head; pectorals 

 \\, their tips not reaching past tips of ventrals. Frontal foramina as in 

 other species of the subgenus Bathystoma, long divided slits in front of the 

 supraoccipital crest. Color in life, silvery Avhite, slightly bhiish above, 

 with iridescent reflections; edges of scales of body light yellow, these 

 forming continuous light yellow lines, those below lateral line horizontal, 

 those .above very oblique; besides these, a narrow continuous streak of 

 light yellow above lateral line, from head to end of soft dorsal, and another 

 from eye to middle of caudal; head silvery-yellowish above; inside of 

 mouth red; no black under preopercle; traces of black blotch at base of 

 caudal ; fins colorless, the lower slightly yellowish. Young are light oliva- 

 ceous, grayisli-silvery below ; a dark bronze band, narrower than pupil, 

 darkest in the younger specimen from snout through eye straight to base 

 of caudal; above this, 2 or 3 dark streaks, the middle one most dis- 

 tinct, from eye to above gill opening; another, beginning on top of snout 

 on each side, passing above eye, and extending parallel with the first-men- 

 tioned stripe straight to last ray of dorsal, where it meets its fellow of the 

 opposite side; a dark streak from tip of snout along median line to front 

 of dorsal ; a large rounded black blotch at base of caudal, somewhat 

 obscure dusky shading below soft dorsal and at base of pectoral; fins all 

 plain, upper slightly dusky; anal nearly white; pectorals, caudal, and 

 ventrals light yellow; lining of opercle j^lain orange; inside of mouth 

 scarlet. In the large specimen (5i inches long) the dark stripes are fainter, 

 paler, and more yellowish ; several fainter bands occur between the broader 

 ones, and faint oblique streaks of light bronze follow the rows of scales, 

 those above lateral line oltlique. In spirits the adult is plain silvery. West 

 Indies; Cape Hatteras to Trinidad; apparently more abundant on our 

 South Atlantic coast than southward; not seen at Havana. Abundant 

 about Charleston, South Carolina, where it is one of the most abundant 

 food-fishes. About Pensacola and Key West the adult are less numerous, 

 but at the latter place the young swarm everywhere about the wharves 

 and shores, (rimator, inquirer, in allusion to the inquisitive hal)it8 of the 

 young, which swarm about the wharves, nibbling bait intended for larger 

 •) 



Hoemulon rimator, Jordan & Swain, Troc. U. S. Nat. Mus. 1884, 308, Charleston; Key 

 West; Pensacola; Jordan & Fesler, I. c, ill. 



Hcemulon chrysopteron, Cuvier & Valenciennes, Hist. Nat. Poiss., v, 240, 1830, brought 

 by Milbert from New York; erroueously identified witb Pfrcft cArysoptem, LiiiDwus, 

 which ia an Orthopristis. 



Hcemulon ehrysopterum, Gunther, Cat., i, 313, 1859. 



Hcemulon (/MadriJtncafMW, HoLBROOK, Ichth. S. Car., 195, I860; not of CnviER & Valen- 

 ciennes. 



Hcemulon '? caudimacula, Poet, Synopsis, 47, 1875; not of Cuvier & Valenciennes. 



Hcemulon par rce, Poey, Enumeratio, 47, 1875; not Hiabasis parra,'DESilAUKS'l. 



Hiahasin aurolineatus, Jordan & Gilbert, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. 1882, 276,307; Jordan Jc 

 Gilbert, Synopsis, 973 ; not Tlcemulon aurolineaHiin, Cuvier & Valenciennes. 



Hiabasis chrysopterzis, Jordan & Gilbert, Synopsis, 553. 



