50 



throughout the West Indies and south to Brazil. Their voracity is very- 

 great, and the tyro in angling usually findshis first prize to be a " Squirrel." 

 They are not often eaten. They breed plentifully about the islands, and 

 reach a length of fifteen inches; the lobes of the vertical fins becoming 

 proportionally more and more produced with age. The local name is 

 the same as that given by Catesby, and refers to a grunting noise 

 uttered by them, which resembles the bark of a squirrel. 



The Cuban form seems to be nearly the same; but Professor Poey 

 hesitatingly places it in a distinct species. 



SCIJENID^. 



Genus PAREQUES, Gill, MS.* 



PAEEQUES AOUMINATUS, {Schneider) Gill. 

 Careub. 



Grammistes acuminatus, Schneider, Bloch. Syst. Icbth. 1801, 184. 



Egues acuminatus, Castlenau, Anim, Nouv. &c. Am^rique du Sud, Poiss. 1855, 11. — 

 GtJNTHEE, Cat. Fish. Brit. Mus. ii, 1861, 280. — Poey, Mem. Hist. Nat. Cuba, ii, 

 1861, 370 ; Eep. Fis.-Nat. Cuba, ii, 1868, 325.— Cope, Trans. Am. Phil. Soc. 1870, 

 471. 



Eques lineatus, Cuv. & Val., Hist. Nat. Poiss. v, 1830, 169. 



Common here, though of rare occurrence elsewhere, having been 

 observed only at Cuba, Santa Cruz, and Bahia ; not valued for food. My 

 specimens measure eleven inches. The name "Carrub" is inexplicable, 

 unless it be a corruption of "Carp." 



Color. — Tawny-yellow ; extremities of fins and base of pectorals and 

 ventrals blackish- brown ; head blotched with the same. Two specimens 

 have seven straight, longitudinal lines upon the side ; the third is with- 

 out any traces of such markings. Whether this difference is sexual, I 

 have no means of determining. The first dorsal is one-fourth the height 

 of the body, measured immediately below it. 



* The genus Pareques is distinguished, according to ProfesBor Gill, by the develop- 

 SHent of the spines of the first dorsal fin in normal number, (ten or eleven,) as well as 

 other osteological characters. 



