540 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
eyes; faint dark streaks across middle of each interspace; a dark bar downward from eye, one behind 
mouth; four black cross streaks on forehead and one backward to nape; upper bands of body meeting 
across forehead; front dorsal black, white edged; base of soft dorsal with a black stripe anteriorly; 
pectoral with a large black stripe above; anal with a black crescent medially; ventrals almost entirely 
black; fins otherwise pale. 
Family P0MACENTR1D4J. 
Pomacentrus caudalis (Poey). 
A small specimen about an inch long. Body deep, depth 2.2 in length. Olivaceous (bluish in 
life), posteriorly bright yellow; fins all yellow; no white or blue spot on last rays of anal; a large black 
ocellus on front of soft dorsal, a smaller one on back of tail, none on opercle nor in axil. 
This little fish corresponds with Poey’s Pomacentrus caudalis and with no other described species. 
It is probably a valid species, although specimens similarly colored have been considered the young of 
Pomacentrus fuscus. 
Microspathodon chrysurus (Cuvier & Valenciennes). 
A fine young specimen, 1.5 inches long. Color blue black, very dark; body and head with round 
light-blue spots about as large as pupil, rather regularly arranged; five with some fainter ones in a line 
from eye to tail; 5 or 6 spots on side of head; caudal fin and most of soft dorsal abruptly yellow; the 
other fins all blackish like the body. Dr. Thompson states that this fish is extremely active in the 
water, being caught only with great difficulty. 
Family LABR1D4?. 
Halichoeres bivittatus (Bloch). 
Three young specimens. The largest is perhaps a representative of a distinct species. Lateral 
stripe very black, the lower one black also, although narrower, the space between them pale, and a 
lunate black spot longer than pupil at base of anterior soft rays. The smaller specimens are green, 
without dorsal ocellus; the lateral stripe is light brown; the lower almost obsolete; opercle with a 
small spot. Specimens like the first with the dorsal ocellus are occasionally taken, and the writer has 
hitherto regarded it as a deep-water variety, which it may be. 
Thalassoma nitidum (Gunther). 
A fine young specimen, 3.5 inches long. Side with a broad violet black stripe from snout to 
caudal, where it divides, extending to tip of either lobe; the band is broadest medially, and there about 
twice diameter of eye; a paler black stripe along middle line of back and base of dorsal; a yello wish- 
browm area between these; dorsal with a median broad black stripe, narrowly pale above and below 
it, the anterior spines in a jet-black blotch; a jet-black axillary spot; belly white; caudal yellowish, 
except for the black streaks; fins otherwise pale; opercle black, pale edged posteriorly. 
Ventrals short, 1.5 in the short pectorals. Thalassoma nitidissimum (Goode), said to have the 
ventrals still shorter, must be the same species. 
Doratonotus decoris Evermann & Marsh. 
Doratonotus decoris Evermann & Marsh, Fishes of Porto Rico, p. 234, pi. 29, 1900. 
One small specimen, beautifully colored, nearly 1.5 inches long. Body bright green with bronze 
dots and markings essentially as shown in Evermann’s figure of the type of Doratonotus decoris from 
Ponce, but there is no bronze streak along the side of the head and the throat and the breast are 
green like the rest of the body. 
Three nominal species of this genus have been described, and possibly all are valid. Doratonotus 
megalepis Gunther, from St. Kitts, is said to have the profile straight and the number of scales 19. 
The color is lost in the typical example. Doratonotus thalassinus Jordan & Gilbert, from near Key 
West, has the profile concave above eye, the snout more elongate, number of scales 20, and the long 
spine of the dorsal with filamentous tips. The color is a little different from that of D. decoris. The 
type of D. decoris, like our specimen, has the profile a little convex above eye, a little concave above 
snout, no filaments on the dorsal spines, the scales 26 (we count 23 on our specimen, and Evermann’s 
figure shows no more). Probably Doratonotus thalassinus is the male and the others the female of the 
same species. Perhaps the three are distinct. Except for the number of scales, we should identify 
D. decoris with D. megalepis. 
Family SCARIDJi. 
Cryptotomus beryllinus (Jordan & Swain). 
One small specimen of this common species. 
