ZOOLOGY 631 



uaked, aud the sides ornamented with ciark longitudinal stripes ; it is 

 the largest of the east coast species. The Mugil curema has the soft 

 dorsal and anal fins scaly, and the sides are plain and without any dark 

 stripes. 



A very little mugilid is quite abundant about Key West and other 

 parts of Florida, and also occurs in Charleston Barbor ; it is known as 

 the whirligig, and has been named Quenmana gyrans. 



The American Par rot- fishes. — Under the name of Parrot-fishes are 

 included quite a number of typical fishes distantly related to the 

 blackiish or tautog of the iSTorth American waters, but differing in the 

 development and exposure of the jaws and the more or less confluence 

 of the teeth with the jaws, and also by the modification of the pharyn- 

 geal bones, which are provided with broad pavement-like teeth. The 

 rays of the fins are very constant in number, there being in the dorsal 

 fin nine spines and ten rays, and in the anal two spines and nine rays. 

 The scales are large and also quite constant in number, there bein^ 

 about 24 vertical rows, of which those ending on the caudal fin are 

 elongated and pointed backwards. The colors are usually quite gay 

 and striking. The fishes themselves are mostly found about coral reefs 

 or in coral groves, and the peculiar character of the jaws and teeth has 

 reference to their habits, the fishes feeding upon the coral, which they 

 bite off and then ingest. They may to some extent be called ruminating 

 fishes, and have a peculiar apparatus exercising an analogous function, 

 as has been lately demonstrated by Dr. Sagemehl. These fishes are well 

 represented in the Caribbean Sea, and have been recently investigated 

 by Messrs. Jordan and Swain. These gentlemen regard the group as 

 a sub-family of the labrids, and recognize for the American species 

 three genera, for which they adopt the names Scams, Sparisoma, and 

 Cryptotomus. Their nomenclature is somewhat peculiar for the genera. 

 (1) The one called by them Srarus is the same as that generally known 

 as rseudoscarus ; (2) the Scarus of European and most other authors is 

 called Sparisoma ; (3) the genus generally known as Calliodon is also 

 called by a different name, Cryptotomus, inasmuch as the former was 

 originally given as a generic name for all Scaridw, but with specific 

 mention of only true Scari of Jordan aud Swain. The celebrated Scarus 

 of the ancients, a well-known inhabitant of the Mediterranean Sea, must 

 now, it seems, be known as a Sparisoma, and as congeniers of it in the 

 Caribbean Sea we have eight species ; of the genus Scarus, five species 

 are recognized by Jordan and Swain, and of the genus Cryptotomus only 

 two are known from the West Indies. The species have been neatly 

 defined by Jordan and Swain, and the result of their labors is a substan- 

 tial addition to systematic ichthyology, and especially the West Indian 

 fish fauna. 



The use of the Bemora in fishing by Africans. — It has long been known 

 that fishes of the Remora kind, or salt-water "suckers," as they are 



