North American Fishes 



I. Trie Yelloxtf Grunt (Haemulon sciurus) 

 R, W. SHUFELDT, M. D., C. M. Z. S. 



The Yellow Grunt 



Haemulon sciurus 



Grunters are contained in the family 

 Haemulidae, and some seven or eight 

 species of them occur in onr South-At- 

 lantic waters. The form here to be not- 

 ed is also known by the names Ronco 

 Amarillo and Boar Grunt. Its generic 

 name is derived from two Greek words 

 signifying "bloody gums," which refers 

 to the bright red color of the mouth- 

 parts, while its specific name, sciurus, 

 has reference to the grunting noise the 

 fish makes upon being captured, which 

 sounds not a little like the grunting of 

 a gray squirrel. 



This species occurs in the South At- 

 lantic, from the Florida Keys to Brazil. 

 My cut of the fish is reproduced from a 

 photograph direct from a specimen, and 

 it shows the external parts so well that a 



detailed description of them is obviated. 



This grunt, in life, has been described 

 by Doctor Jordan as being "deep brassy 

 yellow, scarcely paler below or darker 

 above; head and body with about 12 con- 

 spicuous, slightly wavy, longitudinal 

 stripes of sky-blue, deepest on the snout, 

 each with a very narrow edge of dusky 

 olive, these stripes on the head curving 

 upward below the eye, the first stripe be- 

 low the eye forking near the posterior 

 margin of preopercle, and inclosing an 

 oblong area of the ground color ; iris gilt, 

 a dark spot under the angle of preop- 

 ercle ; spinous dorsal edged and shaded 

 with yellowish, its membrane mostly 

 bluish ; soft dorsal yellowish ; caudal yel- 

 lowish, broadly dusky at base, the degree 

 of this duskiness being variable ; mouth 



