Jordan and Evermann. Fishes of North America, 1653 



Avhen spread open its outer rays a little produced, 1 in head, in young of 

 a foot in length, said to be much longer in adult. Adult deep uniform blue ; 

 partly grown specimens (from Havana) bright sky blue everywhere ; some 

 brown on upper scales; lower lip reddish brown, edged with blue; fins 

 blue, with some brown; teeth pale reddish. Young (4 inches; Key West) 

 light, livid blue gray, tinged with brownish on back, quite bluish below; 

 yellowish olive on top of head, but no sharp markings anywhere except 

 on fins; jaws rather bright llesh red, the snout bluish; teeth pale; dorsal 

 edged with bright blue, below this dull orange, its base livid; caudal 

 grayish, faintly banded with olive, its upper and lower edges bright blue; 

 anal flesh color, edged Avith light blue, ventrals greenish-blue, fading on 

 last rays; pectorals llesh color; axil light blue. Color in spirits, greenish 

 olive above, pale below; dorsal dusky; caudal and anal grayish; fins 

 otherwise pale. 



Large examples from Jamaica have the following colors: 

 IJody ultamariiie blue; fins blue, dorsal edged with darker blue, the 

 membrane of spinous dorsal blackish at base ; a sky-blue band from eye to 

 and across each lip ; a pale band below it on under lip, a narrow pale 

 edging above; pectoral with base and upper ray blue, rest of fin pale; 

 anal deep blue, blackish at base-; veutrals blue, the last rays paler; 

 caudal deep blue, the outer rays darker, posterior edge pale; teeth pale. 

 Specimens about 6 inches long have the back yellow, scales on sides yel- 

 low with green edges ; belly nearly uniform greenish; outer rays of caudal 

 deep green, middle rays paler; dorsal yellow, edged with green; anal 

 pale yellowish, edged with green; pectorals nearly colorless, slightly 

 orange at tip; ventrals greenish. 



Length of example described from Havana, 10 inches. The species 

 reaches a length of 2 or 3 feet. West Indies ; generally common ; straying 

 northward along the coast of the United States; taken in abundance in 

 pound nets off St. George Island, Maryland, about 12 miles from Chesa- 

 peake Bay, in August, 1894, some specimens weighing 12 pounds (Dr. 

 Hugh M. Smith.)* Abundant about Key West and in the Bermudas. In 

 the adult (obtustis) a great fleshy hump is developed on the forehead and 

 the lobes of the caudal become much produced as in Pseudoscarus gau- 

 camia. (ccvruleus, blue.) 



Novaculaccerulea (theBluefish), CATESBY, Nat. Hist. Carolina, etc., 18, pi. 18, 1743, Bahamas. 

 Loro, PARKA, Descr. Dif. Piezas Hiat. Nat., 57, pi. 27, fig. 1, 1787, Cuba. 

 Trompa, PARRA, I. c., fig. 2. 



Coryphcena ccerulea, BLOCK, Ausliindische Fische, n, 120, pi. 176, 178G, in part; after 

 CATESBY and a figure of AUBRIET, altered from a figure by PLUMIER. 



* Dr. Smith writes as follows under date of October 13, 1894 : "I am now able to furnish 

 Home additional data on the parrot-fish. I have interviewed 2 gentlemen who saw the 

 fish when first taken, and now present their description of the colors : The back was very 

 dark greenish blue, which color extended from the upper part of the beak to the base of 

 the tail; this shaded off on the sides of the body to a light blue; the under parts, includ- 

 ing the mandible, were white; the fins were very dark green or blue, almost black; these 

 colors apply to a specimen weighing 8 pounds. Thinking that if these fish were found in 

 the Potomac Eiver they would also probably be taken in the Chesapeake, I wrote to a well- 

 informed fisherman and fish dealer at Cape Charles City, Virginia, inclosing a figure of a 

 parrot-fish and asking whether any had been caught this year. He replied that a tew nsh 

 resembling the figure and inv description were obtained in pound nets between. Cape 

 Charles and Hungers Creek in August and September. He learned of 6 to 10 ol these 

 4 new ' fish taken from time to time, seldom more than 1 at a lift." 



