THE b'ISHES OF SAMOA. iiOl 



This beautiful fish occurs from the Red Sea throughout Polynesia. We have 3 specimens from 

 Pago Pago and 7 from Apia. Life colors of a specimen from Pago Pago, head grass-green, the stripes 

 creamy pink, edged with blue; jaws yellow; stripes on throat of paler pink. 



933. Halichceres notophthalmus (Bleeker). Samoa; New Guinea; Rarotonga (Seale); East Indies. 

 We have 4 specimens of this East Indian fish taken at Apia. Life colors of one specimen, body 



gray with transverse blotches of black, very irregular; lips orange; iris red; caudal bright yellow with 

 two confluent white blotches at base, with black between; a white blotch across spinous dorsal; a 

 black ocellus, golden-edged, on soft dorsal; anal and pectoral pale; ventral white; a brown red stripe 

 through eye; whitish stripe below; a brown red spot below; breast mostly black. (Young). 



Another specimen was very pale olive, almost white, with three broad black irregular crossbars, 

 the second broadest and blackest, some black spots on the pale bars along line of back; head pale; 

 cheek with two deep blue horizontal stripes, the upper through eye to gill-opening; darker behind 

 eye; two black spots on each side of breast, two on base of pectoral with white between; dorsal 

 colored like body; a large white-edged black ocellus in black part; soft dorsal mottled, pale gray; 

 caudal deep yellow with two whitish yellow spots at base, dusky between; ventral whitish; pectoral 

 colorless; anal pale. 



934. Halichceres trimaculatus (Quoy & Gaimard). Samoa; Vanicolo; New Guinea; Fiji; Tahiti; 



Tubuai; Fate and Shortland Is. (Seale); East Indies. (PI. xlvii, fig. 1.) 

 This is a common and most beautiful fish about Samoa, where it swarms in the coral reefs. ^\'e 

 have 58 specimens from Pago Pago and 80 from Apia. 



Life colors were noted in various specimens as follows: 



(1) From Apia. Green, each scale with a dark grayish bronze crescent; scales of nape with orange 

 spots; head green, with bright red stripes and spots; cheek golden, the color bounded by a green band 

 above; creamy red marks on chin and throat, bordered by green; a large jet black spot behind 

 shoulder, with two blue ones within it, the color extending as a bar to ventrals, green, with red spots; 

 an indigo-black spot above lateral line before caudal; dorsal light green with three stripes of creamy 

 scarlet; caudal orange, fading behind, a greenish edge above; anal greenish with two red stripes, the 

 basal one narrower and deeper in color; pectoral colorless; ventral flesh color. 



(2) From Apia. Bright green; each scale with a dark olive spot; head green, yellow below, with 

 coppery red streaks and spots about eye; a small black ocellus at base of pectoial, a pink crossbar 

 behind it; a large black spot on caudal peduncle; dorsal greenish, finely covered with coppery red 

 lines; caudal, anal, and ventral similarly barred; belly whitish; pectoral pale. 



(3) From Pago Pago. Pale bluish gray, the sides of head sometimes but not always brassy; pale 

 blue stripes before and behind eye, below eye horizontal; tip of snout with plain oblong black spot 

 above; side of body with six blackish cross shades, the second and third widest and more or less con- 

 fluent; a large blue-black spot on side before caudal; a small black ocellus at upper base of pectoral; 

 fins plain olivaceous; a violet-blue vertical spot on each scale of body. 



(4) A larger example. Head green, golden below, the marks crimson not blue; bands more 

 reduced; second and third still plainer; spots on scales orange brown; black pectoral spot at base 

 above, with a green, red-edged bar below it, and a red bar across axil to ventral; throat with two red 

 cross-bands; precaudal spot large and distinct, black rose spot obscure; fins all pale reddish, the dorsal 

 streaked with red on green ground; nape with dose-set red spots. 



935. Halichceres dsedalma Jordan & Seale, new species. Falatjn loa. Samoa. (PI. xlvii, fig. 2. ) 

 Head 3 in length; depth 3.20; eye 5.50 in head; dorsal ix, 11; anal iii, 11; scales 25; snout 3.10 



ill liead; interorbital equal to orbit. 



Body elongate, compressed, the anterior profile of head evenly pointed; depth of caudal peduncle 

 2.20 in head; teeth in a single series in each jaw, the anterior ones projecting canines, a single posterior 

 canine at angle of jaw; lips rather thick, with folds; angle of jaws scarcely reaching to anterior margin 

 of eye; opercle and preopercle entire, no scales on cheek; the last spine of spmous dorsal the longest, 

 3 in head; the longest soft ray 2.75; pectoral 1.50 in head; ventral 1.25; base of anal 1.85 in base of 

 dorsal, its longest ray about 3 in head; cau<lal slightly rounded, 1.75 in head. 



