346 REPORT OF NEW JERSEY STATE MUSEUM. 
toral translucent brownish with a glazed gilded effect. Inside of 
gill-opening pale or translucent-whitish. Length 8% inches. 
Sea Isle City. September 2d, 1905. 
A fine food-fish reaching a length of 3 feet and generally abund- 
ant on our coast in shallow water and about kelp. My examples 
from Stone Harbor, Atlantic City, Cape May and Beesley’s 
Point. 
Tautoga onitis Abbott, Geol. N. J., 1868, p. 809.—Bean, Bull. 
UsS+FoGom:> Vil» 1887; p: 037; Pling, igng= Moore, sulin: 
SF) Com. XT 1892, ipx363.—Smith; Bull. WinSekinCons 
XII, 1892, p. 378. 
Labrus tautoga Mitchill, Tr. Am. Philos. Soc. Phila., 1815, 
P. 399. 
Tautoga americana Baird, gth An. Rep. Smiths. Inst., 1854, 
p. 340. 
Family SCARIDZ. 
The Parrot Fishes. 
Body oblong, moderately compressed. Mouth moderate, ter- 
minal. ‘Teeth in jaws more or less coalescent, at least base. 
Lower pharyngeals much enlarged, united in a concave or spoon- 
shaped body, their teeth broadest transversely and truncate, ar- 
ranged in mosaic. Vertebrz about 11 + 14==25. Squamation 
varying little except on head. Body covered with large cycloid 
scales, as in the Labride. About 23 to 25 scales in lateral line. 
Dorsal continuous, its formula usually IX, 10, and anal II, 9. 
Fin rays essentially same throughout. Sexes similarly colored, 
and coloration almost always brilliant. Herbivorous fishes often 
of large size, not valued as food, the flesh being soft and pasty. 
One species straggling to our shores. 
Genus SPARISOMA Swainson. 
Viejas. 
Sparisoma sp. 
Seales 214-24-6. Teeth anchylosed, but with free conical tips 
in both jaws. Gill-membranes attached to isthmus. Color after 
