346 REPORT OF NEW JERSEY STATE MUSEUM. 



toral translucent brownish with a glazed gilded effect. Inside of 

 gill-opening pale or translucent-whitish. Length 8j^ inches. 

 Sea Isle City. September 2d, 1905. 



A fine food-fish reaching a length of 3 feet and generally abund- 

 ant on our coast in shallow water and about kelp. My examples 

 from Stone Harbor, Atlantic City, Cape ]\Iay and Beesley's 

 Point. 



Tautoga onitis Abbott, Geol. X. J.. 1868, p. 809. — Bean, Bull. 

 U. S. F. Com., VII, 1887, p. 137, PL 3, fig. 3.— ^loore. Bull. U. 

 S. F. Com., XII, 1892, p. 363.— Smith, Bull. U. S. F. Com.,. 

 XII, 1892, p. 378. 



Lahrus tautoga ^Mitchill, Tr. Am. Philos. Soc. Phila., 1815. 



P- 399- 



Tautoga aincricaua Baird, 9th An. Rep. Smiths. Inst., 1854, 



P- 340. 



Family SCARID^. 



The Parrot Fishes. 



Body oblong, moderately compressed. ]\Iouth moderate, ter- 

 minal. Teeth in jaws more or less coalescent, at least base. 

 Lower pharyngeals much enlarged, united in a concave or spoon- 

 shaped body, tlieir teeth broadest transversely and truncate, ar- 

 ranged in mosaic. Vertebras about 11 + 14^25. Squamation 

 varying little except on head. Body covered with large cycloid 

 scales, as in the Labridce. About 23 to 25 scales in lateral line. 

 Dorsal continuous, its formula usually IX, 10, and anal II, 9. 

 Fin ra3^s essentially same throughout. Sexes similarly colored. 

 and coloration almost always brilliant. Herbivorous fishes often 

 of large size, not valued as food, the flesh being soft and pasty. 

 One species straggling to our shores. 



Genus Sparisoma Sw^ainson. 



Viejas. 

 Sparisoma sp. 



Scales 2}4-24— 6. Teeth anchylosed, but with free conical tips 

 in both jaws. Gill-membranes attached to isthmus. Color after 



