FISHES OF NEW YORK 607 



293 Teuthis hepatus Linnaeus 

 Surgeons; Doctor Fish; Tang - 



Teuthis hepatus Linnaeus, Syst. Nat. ed. XII, 507, 1766, Carolina; Meek & 



Hoffman, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila. 229, 1884; Bean, Bull. Am. Mus. 



Nat. Hist. IX, 368, 1897; Jordan & Evermann, Bull. 47, U. S. Nat. 



Mus. 1691, 1898. 

 Acanthurus phlehotomus Cuvier & Valenciennes, Hist. Nat. Poiss. X, 176, 



1835, New York, etc.; De Kay, N. Y. Fauna, Fishes, 139, pi. 73, fig. 



234, 1842. 

 Acanthurus cMrurgus Cuvier & Valenciennes, Hist. Nat. Poiss. X, 168, 



1835; Gunther, Cat. Fish. Brit. Mus. 329, 1861; Jordan & Gilbert, 



Bull. 16, U. S. Nat. Mus. 617, 1883. 

 Acanthurus nigricans Jordan & Gilbert, 1. c. 941, 1883. 



Body ovate, its greatest depth one half of total length with- 

 out caudal; anterior profile moderately convex, forming an 

 angle of 45° with axis of body. Caudal lunate, its inner rays 

 about two thirds length of outer rays; caudal lobes subequal,^ 

 the upper never filamentous. Head rather short, two sevenths 

 of total length without caudal. D. IX, 26; A. Ill, 24. 



Color dark olive brown, more or less distinctly greenish; 

 middle of sides paler; sides with about 12 distinct blackish 

 vertical bars, rather narrower than the interspaces, most dis- 

 tinct over front of anal; a brownish stripe along base of dorsal; 

 spinous dorsal with alternate stripes running upward and back- 

 ward, of dark blue and bronze olive, the two colors of about 

 equal width; soft dorsal with a bluish streak on the anterior 

 side of each ray, and a bronze stripe behind it; fins very dark, 

 often almost black. 



The surgeon is common in the West Indies and from Florida 

 to Bahia and northward in summer to Cape Cod. 



A young individual, about 3 inches long, was caught in Mr 

 John B. De Nyse's pound, Gravesend bay, Oct. 22, 1897. The 

 species had not been certainly known before to occur north of 

 Charleston S. C. De Kay described and figured it as a New 

 York species solely on the authority of Cuvier and Valenciennes. 

 Dr Smith records the capture of a few specimens in the vicinity 

 of Woods Hole Mass. during the summer of 1900. It was last 

 observed on October 3 when one example was taken. 



