58 



Color. — Adult fishes range from a light-slate color to a deep chest- 

 uut-brown. In some indivitluals a narrow baud of black extends from 

 the tip of the snout to a point between the eyes, where it divides ; the 

 branches extending, one to the origin of the dorsal and the other to the 

 angle of the operculum, and upw^ard to unite with the first at the origin 

 of the dorsal. The lips and throat are bright vermilion. 



A great variation is apparent in the color of different individuals, 

 which has not yet been satisfactorily explained, though it is no doubt 

 due to the depth of water or color of the bottom in the place where they 

 are taken, as is suggested below under Enneaccntrus punctatus. The 

 fishermen claim that the color of individuals confined in the ponds 

 changes from one extreme to the other within the period of a few weeks, 

 I have myself seen very considerable variation in color in the course of a 

 week in fishes confined in shallow fish-ponds. The young fish are always 

 slate-color and are also marked with six or seven broad, transverse bands 

 of light brown and a large quadrangular black blotch across the back 

 of the tail behind the dorsal. 



EPINEPHELUS GUTTATUS, {Gmelin) Goode. 

 Hind. 



f Cugupuguacu, MarcgKave, Hist. &c. Brasil, 1648, 169. — Sloane, Voyage aux lies de 

 Madei-e, des Barbades, de St. Christophe, et de la Jamaique, 1727, tab. ccxlvii. — 



Ciigiqntguacu Brazil, Catesby, Nat. Hist. CaroliDa, Florida, and Bahamas, ii, 1743, 14, 

 tab. xiv (the Hind). 



Fcrca guttata, Gmelin, Linn^, Syst. Nat. 1, 1788, 1315 (on a figure by Catesby).— Cuv. 

 & Val., Hist. Nat. Poiss. ii, 1828, 372. 



Bodianus apua, Block, Ichth. vii, 1797, 37, tab. ccxxix (on a figure by Prince Mau- 

 rice).— LACfipfeoE, Hist. Nat. Poiss. iv, 1803, 296. 



t ^n-anus apua, Cuv. & Val., op. cit. 287 (citing as a synonym Piraticrpia, Marc- 

 GKAVE, op. cit. 158). 



Sa-ranus apua, GOnthek, Cat. Fish. Brit. Mus. i, 1861, 140. 



Bodianus marginatus, Schneider, Bloch, Syst. Ichth. 1801, 331. 



Very common ; recorded also from Jamaica, and probably from Bra- 

 zil. The E.ind is readily sold in the market, where specimens two feet 

 in length are sometimes seen. 



The name llind perhaps refers to the spotted markings as similar to 

 those of the deer. The name is found in nearly all the English West 

 Indian islands, applied to the spotted species of this family. 



Color. — Brownish, red, or rosy-white, with numerous small circular 

 spots of deep rose-color, fading to brown in spirits. Vertical fins 

 broadly margined with black. 



