Jordan a)id Evermann. — Fishes of North America. 1653 



when spread opeu its outer rays a little produced, If in head, in young of 

 a foot in length, said to be much longer in adult. Adult deep uniform bine ; 

 partly gro\Yn specimens (from Havana) bright sky blue everywhere ; some 

 brown on upper scales; lower lip reddish brown, edged with blue; fins 

 blue, with some brown; teeth pale reddish. Young (4 inches; Key West) 

 light, livid blue gray, tinged with brownish on l)ack, quite bluish below; 

 yellowish olive on top of head, but no sharp markings anywhere except 

 on tins; jaws rather bright desh red, the snout bluish; teeth pale; dorsal 

 edged with bright blue, below this dull orange, its base livid; caudal 

 grayish, faintly banded with olive, its upper and lower edges bright blue ; 

 anal flesh color, edged with light blue, V(^ntrals greeuisli-blue, fading on 

 last rays; pectorals flesh color; axil light blue. Color in spirits, greenish 

 olive above, pale below; dorsal dusky; caudal and anal grayish; fins 

 otherwise pale. 



Large examijles from Jamaica have the following colors: 

 Body ultamarine blue; fins blue, dorsal edged with darker blue, the 

 membrane of spinous dorsal blackish at base ; a sky-blue band from eye to 

 and across each lip; a pale band below it on under lip, a narrow pale 

 edging above; pectoral with base and upper ray blue, rest of fin pale; 

 anal deep blue, blackish at base; vontrals blue, the last rays paler; 

 caudal deep blue, the outer rays darker, posterior edge pale; teeth pale. 

 Specimens about 6 inches long have the back yellow, scales on sides yel- 

 low with green edges ; belly nearly uniform greenish ; outer rays of caudal 

 deep green, middle rays paler; dorsal yellow, edged with green; anal 

 pale yellowish, edged with green; pectorals nearly colorless, slightly 

 orange at tip ; ventrals greenish. 



Length of example described from Havana, 10^ inches. The species 

 reaches a length of 2 or 3 feet. West Indies ; generally common ; straying 

 northward along the coast of the United States; taken in abundance in 

 pound nets oft' St. George Island, Maryland, about 12 miles from Chesa- 

 peake Bay, in August, 1894, some specimens weighing 12 pounds (Dr. 

 Hugh M. Smith.)* Abundant about Key West and in the Bermudas. In 

 the adult (obttisna) a great fleshy hump is developed on the forehead and 

 the lobes of the caudal become much produced as in Pseiuloscarns (/aii- 

 camia. {cceruleus, blue.) 



Novaculacairulea (theHlue&sh), Catesby, Nat. Hist. ( Juroliua, etc., 18, pi. 18, 1743, Bahamas. 

 Loro, Parra, Deecr. Dif. Piezas Hist. Nat., 57, pi. 27, fig. 1, 1787, Cuba. 

 Trompa, Parra, I. c, tig. 2. 



Coryphcena ecerulea, Block, Ausliiudischo Fische, n, 120, pi. 176, 178G, in part; after 

 Catesby and a figure of Aubbiet, altered from a flgvire by Plumiee. 



* Dr. Smitli writes as follows under date of October 13, 1894 : "I am now able to furnish 

 some additional data on the parrot-fish. I have interviewed 2 gentlemen who saw the 

 fish when first taken, and now present their description of the colors : The back was very 

 dark greenish blue, which color extended from the upper part of the beak to the base of 

 the tail ; this shaded ofl' on the sides of the body to a light blue; the under parts, includ- 

 ing the mandible, were white; the fins were very dark green or blue, almost black; these 

 colors apply to a specimen weighing 8 pounds. Thinking that it these fish were found in 

 the Potomac Hiver tin y would also probably be taken in the Chesapeake, I wrote to a well- 

 informed fisherman and fish dealer at Cape Charles City, Virginia, inclosing a figure of a 

 parrot-fish and asking wliit In r any had been caught this year. He replied that a few fish 

 resembling the figure and my description were" obtained in pound nets bttwenn Cape 

 Charles and Hungers Creek in August and September. He learned of 6 to 10 of these 

 'new' fish taken from time to time, seldom more than 1 at a lift." 



