174 GILBERT 



band described by Steindachner, and by Cuvier and Valenciennes, which 

 is said to run obliquely from the opercle in front of the pectoral base to 

 the ventral outline, nor of the second line described by Steindachner 

 from the angle of the mouth to the base of the ventral fins. The ver- 

 tical fins appear yellowish green and the caudal has no trace of the 

 lines converging backward from the basal angles. The dorsal is mar- 

 gined with blue or violet, but exhibits no distinguishable marks at the 

 base of any of the rays except the last two. On each of these is a 

 small black spot extending onto the adjacent part of the back. The 

 anal is more obscurely greenish than the dorsal, and may have shown 

 bluish or violet shades in life. The margin is distinctly violet or blue. 

 A narrow line of the same color is visible on the anterior part of the 

 fin, running horizontally nearer the base than the margin. Below this 

 are traces of the blue spots margined with yellow, as described by 

 Steindachner. 



This is evidently the /r^'^/Zc \_Julis\ ci'otaphiis oiQwv'xQX and Valen- 

 ciennes and of authors generally, a species common in Brazil and the 

 West Indies. Dr. Jordan has pointed out that in Cuvier's first use of 

 the name crotap/ms it is a S3'nonym of /. radiatus^ and is hence not 

 available for the present species, for which he therefore adopts Stein- 

 dachner's later name poeyi. Subsequently Jordan and Evermann re- 

 vise this judgment and point out certain alleged differences between 

 the common Brazilian form, crotaphus, and Steindachner's description 

 of /. poeyi. The former they now recognize as a distinct species under 

 the name /. kh-schii. The most important difference between the 

 two is stated to be in the size of the eye, which is nearly 3 in snout, 

 6\ in head in /. poeyi ; i-| in snout, 4|^ in head, in /. kirschii. In the 

 specimen before me, which is 2 inches shorter than the type of /. poeyi^ 

 the eye is 23- in snout, 6 in head, therein agreeing essentially with 

 Steindachner's measurement. A more serious disagreement is in the 

 depth of the body, stated by Steindachner to be 3^;} i^^ tJic total length. 

 In my specimen the depth is 314- in the length to base of caudal. The 

 striking coincidences in the description and the comparatively unim- 

 portant differences lead me to adopt Dr. Jordan's earlier view, identi- 

 fying /. poeyi with /. crotaphus (Cuvier & Valenciennes) and using 

 the former as the earliest available name for the species. 



63. Sparisoma frondosum (Cuvier). 

 Pernambuco ; ISIaceio. 

 Closely related to S. r^ibripinne. 

 D. IX, 10; A. II, 9. Lat. L. 25, ^l • 

 Head 4 in length to end of middle caudal rays; depth 3 1 in the 



