The Bass and their Relatives 541 
is commonest along our South Atlantic coast, not reaching 
the West Indies, and Mycteroperca rubra, which is never red, 
enters the Mediterranean. Mycteroperca falcata is known in 
the markets as scamp, and Mycteroperca venadorum is a giant 
species from the Venados Islands, near Mazatlan. Diploprion 
bifasciatus is a handsome grouper-like fish with two black 
cross-bands, found in Japan and India. Variola louti, red, 
with crimson spots and a forked caudal fin, is one of the most 
showy fishes of the equatorial Pacific. 
Fie. 480.—Yellow-fin Grouper, Mycteroperca venenosa (Linneus). Havana. 
The small fishes called Vaca in Cuba belong to the genus 
_Hypoplectrus. Their extraordinary and unexplained variations 
in color have been noticed on page 88. The common species— 
blue, orange, green, plain, striated, checkered, or striped— 
bears the name of Hypoplectrus unicolor (Fig. 431). 
The Serranos.—In all the species known as jewfish and 
grouper, as also in the Oxylabracide and most Centrarchide, 
the maxillary bone is divided by a lengthwise suture which 
sets off a distinct supplemental maxillary. This bone is want- 
ing in the remaining species of Serranide, as it is also in those 
forms already noticed which are familiarly known as bass. 
The species without the supplemental maxillary are in general 
smaller in size, the canines are on the sides of the jaws instead 
of in front, and there is none of the hinged depressible teeth 
which are conspicuous in the groupers. The species are abundant 
in the Atlantic, but scarcely any are found in Polynesia, and 
few in Japan or India. 
