ÖFVERSIGT AF K. VETENSK.-AKAD. FÖRHANDLINGAR 18 94, N:0 3. 121 



band on the sides is dark with blue (or sometimes reddish) hue. 

 Belly silvery, a little bluish. Opercle bkiish. Head above dark, 

 siiout in some specimens red. A blue spöt on each side of the 

 iiiouth. The fishes loose their color very soon. They are very 

 lively and shy, live in schools and feed on entomostraca. I 

 have found rests of soniething like Bosmina in their intestines 

 These now mentioned specimens all seenied to be pelägic or 

 limnetic to their habits. But on another occasion I found in a 

 small lake near McDonald, Orange Co. in the rieh vegetation 

 there two large specimens of Labidesthes, which seemed to me 

 different in shape too, not only in habits. They were more 

 compressed, had a longer snout and so on. I sent one of these 

 to Dr. Tarleton Bean, Washington, D. C, and having com- 

 pared it with a large number of Labidesthes in U. S. Nat. 

 Museum he says that it cannot be but L. sicculus. The species 

 is very variable, the number of spines and soft ra^s as well as 

 the rows of scales on the body are inconstant and he adds 

 »The size of the eye, and the length of the snout are also vari- 

 able characters». In such a case I only can regard these two 

 specimens as aberrant forms of Labidesthes sicculus, they are 

 however very different. Woolman ') has found Labidesthes 

 sicculus in Alligator river, Peace river and Hillsboro river (of 

 the Westcoast), but he does not raention anything about the 

 variation of the species. 



Spliyrcena picuda {Bloch. & ScH.'NEl'DEs). »Barracuda». This 

 tish is seen every day in the Key West fishmarket. It is taken 

 with the twopronged spear, the »grain», which is used with much 

 skill by the fishermen of that place. The barracuda is common 

 on the shallow banks among the Keys, but I could not get any 

 specimen small enough to preserve. 



Echeneis naucrates LiNNÉ »Sucker». Common on sharks 

 at Key West where it often is brought to the market as a 

 »curiosity». 



') 1. c. 



Öfversigt af K. Vet.-Akad. Förh. 1894. Arg. 51. N:o .?. 



