56 



Triwtropis irunneiis, Gill, 1. c. — Poey, Rep. Fis.-Nat. Cuba, ii, 1868, 150, ^34 ; Annals 



Lye. Nat. Hist. N. Y. is, l»70, 305. 

 Seiranus arara, Poey (not Cuv. & Val.), Mem. ii, 1830, 132. 

 Serranus decimnlis, Foey, Mera. ii, 1860, 138. 



Serranus cycJopomatus, Poky, Mem. ii, 1861, 353 ; Rep. ii, 1868, 284. 

 Sei'ranus latej}ictus, Poey, Mem. ii, 1861, 353. 



Very common ; recorded also from the West Indies and the coast of 

 Brazil. The Rock-fish attains the length of four or five feet, and is one 

 of the choicest of table-fishes, though Catesby declares that his "Rock- 

 fish", which seems most probably the same, "has the worst character 

 for its poisonous quality of any other among the Bahama Islands". 



Color. — Brown, thickly mottled with large, irregularly quadrilateral 

 spots of brownish-violet. The sides of the head are marked with wavy, 

 irregular lines of deep violet. Dorsal broadly margined with black ; 

 caudal, anal, and ventral tipped with deep black, which gradually 

 shades into the color of the body ; pectorals tipped with orange. 



It may be regarded as somewhat doubtful whether the species of 

 Cuvier is identical with that whose diagnosis is given by Dr. Giinther 

 under the same name, since the former makes no allusion to the yellow 

 tips of the pectorals. Professor Poey, after an examination of one of 

 Cuvier's types, pronounces it distinct from his Serranus hrunneus by reason 

 of a slightly-rounded caudal. The Serranus undulosus defined by Giin- 

 ther coincides withPoey's Serranus hrunrteus in its truncated caudal and 

 in other respects. I have provisionally accepted Giinther's identifica- 

 tion of Cuvier's species. Catesby's figure disagrees in its slightly-forked 

 caudal, but in other respects corresponds with the specimen before me; 

 and, since no conjecture has been offered as to its relations, I have, 

 after making allowances for the carelessness which the artist manifests 

 in many of the other plates, ventured to refer it to the same species. 



TRISOTROPIS GUTTATUS, {Schneider) Gill. 



Red Rock-fish. 



Bonace cardenal, Parra, Descr. Dif. Piez. His. Nat. Cuba, 1787, 29, lam. xvi, f. 1. 

 Johnius guttatus, Schneider, Bloch, Syst. Iclith. 1801, 77 (on Parra's figure). 

 Trisotropis guttatus, Gill, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila. 1865, 105. 

 Serranus cardinalis, Cuv. & Val,, His. Nat. Poiss. ii, 1829, 378 (on Parra's figure). — 



Storek, Syn. Fish., N. Am., 1840, 27.— GCxther, Cat. Fish. Brit. Mus.i, 1861, 



57, note 19.— Poey, Eep. Fis.-Nat. Cuba, i, 1867, 200. 

 Trisotropis cardinalis, Poey, op. cit. ii, 282 ; Annals Lye. Nat. Hist. N. Y. ix, 1870, 303. 

 Serranus rupestris, Cuv. & Val., op. cit. ix, 1833, 437.— Stoker, op. cit. 29.— Gunther, 



op. cit. 145. 



