The Parrot-fishes 339 



with whom I came in contact all believed it 

 poisonous, and invariably killed and threw it 

 away. It affected water of medium depth, but 

 came in upon the lagoons at night to feed. At 

 Porto Rico, according to Evermann, it is a more 

 or less important food fish, the people not having 

 the foolish superstition of many of the Conchs. 

 Dr. Jordan states that " In Hawaii the parrot- 

 fishes, being eaten raw, are very highly esteemed 

 and even once held as tabu, to be touched only 

 by royalty." As near as I could determine, the 

 men whom I knew, believed the fish to be poison- 

 ous because it was " green," when in point of fact 

 it was blue, though another large green parrot- 

 fish and several small ones found here fell under 

 the ban. Long John explained to me that on 

 the Cuban coast there were "submarine ledges 

 of copper," which certain fishes, like parrot-fishes, 

 ate and so became poisoned. No argument 

 could convince the men that they were mistaken, 

 even though I ate the parrot-fish and others, and 

 still lived to tell the story. Long John met this 

 self-sacrificing experiment with the remark that 

 " Some folks was pizen proof." 



With the blue parrot-fish at Long Key another 

 form, Pseudoscarus guacamaia, equally as large 



