1636 Bulletin 4.7, United States National Museum. 



simple branch at base (a character which separates the species from S. 

 frondosum). Sides with 3 rather faint dark streaks, alternating with 3 

 pale ones; back greenish, sides brown; belly rosy; first dark streak 

 between lateral line and back; second broad, from opercle backward, 

 third narrow on sides of belly; a black axillary spot above; red spots 

 below lower jaw; pectoral yellowish; other fins reddish, with points and 

 shades of carmine; a pale space on caudal peduncle behind dorsal.* 

 Cuba and Jamaica, south to Bahia; not rare. (Poey.) A specimen from 

 Bahia is thus described: Depth 3; caudal fin lunate, the angles short but 

 sharp (rounded in the very young); dentition of Sparisoma Jiavescens; 

 cheek with 3 scales. Mottled olive brown ; body with 3 or 4 pale longi- 

 tudinal streaks, the upper running to a faint pale blotch on back of tail 

 between 2 dark-brown blotches; caudal distinctly pale-edged behind and 

 more distinctly barred than in S. flavescens, the margin abruptly whitish ; 

 spot at base of pectoral brownish and very faint; about 4 small dusky 

 blotches along base of dorsal, the last one most distinct at base of last ray ; 

 caudal with many cross bars and blotches ; snout dusky ; chin with 1 or 2 

 whitish cross bars ; caudal concave, with sharp angles ; dorsal and anal 

 mottled with brown ; pectorals and ventrals plain ; young with dark oper- 

 cular blotch and dark points about eye. (distinctus, distinct, from the 

 dark streaks.) 



Scarus distinctus, POEY, Memorias, n, 423, 1861, Havana; POEY, Kepertorio, n, 163 ; POEY, 



Synopsis, 341 ; POEY, Enum., 114. 

 Sparisoma distinctum, JORDAN, Review Labroid Fishes, 676 ; JORDAN & RUTTER, Proc. Ac. 



Nat. Sci.Phila. 1897, 119. 

 Scarus frondosu*, G^NTHER, Cat.,iv, 210; not of CUVIER. 



2048. SPARISOMA CHRYSOPTERUM (Blocli & Schneider). 



(BLUE PARROT-FISH; VlEJA.) 



Head 3 (4 with caudal); depth 21 (3). D. IX, 10; A. II, 9; scales 

 2^-24-6. Body oblong; a strong canine directed outward and backward 

 toward angle of mouth in upper jaw ; besides this about 3 smaller canines 

 toward front of jaw, chiefly turned forward; upper lip covering about 

 I of upper jaw. Eye 5f in head; snout not obtuse, 2f; cheek with a 

 single row of 3 or 4 large scales ; each pore of lateral line ramose, many 

 times forked, and covering most of the scale, the pores more branched than 

 in any other of our species ; 4 scales on median line before dorsal. Caudal 

 deeply lunate, the outer rays much produced, upper lobe the longer, twice 

 as long as inner rays, as long as head. Color in life, bright blue, almost 

 everywhere tinged with green ; head and portion behind pectorals 

 brighter ; an ill-defined pale band on lower part of side ; dorsal and anal 



* One of Poey's types of Scarus distinctus is in the National Museum. It agrees very 

 closely with Sparisoma rubripinne, differing chiefly in the presence of a posterior canine 

 and in the more sharply denned coloration. Specimens from Jamaica show the following 

 characters : Sides olivaceous, mottled with darker, an indistinct dark hand from ahove 

 pectoral to caudal; vertical tins mottled with bright red, especially posteriorly, the caudal 

 being entirely red in some specimens; a white cross blotch on tail behind dorsal; the 

 scales below more or less distinctly pale edged ; pectorals tinged with yellowish olive ; 

 ventrals white ; some specimens with the belly and ventral fins almost entirely red, the 

 outer rays only being white, others with but little red anywhere. 



