JUVENILE AND SEX CHARACTERS OF E. LYRICUS 
123 
having two small black spots one below and a little behind the other. These bands 
become whitish in preserved specimens. They usually appear in specimens of 40 to 
45 millimeters, but are sometimes indistinct even in larger individuals. Anal more 
or less dusky, especially in males, with a whitish margin. Yentrals plain in females, 
dusky in males. Base of pectoral marbled with greenish and bluish metallic shades 
in life, mottled dark in preserved specimens. 
The material from Panama, Jamaica, and Porto Rico shows that the chief 
secondary sexual characters of the male, namely, the elongation of the anterior rays 
of the first dorsal, the inner band of the teeth in the lower j9w, the unnotched condi- 
tion of the teeth, the elongate caudal, and the two red bands on the caudal fin, appear 
when the fish is on the average smaller than those from the northern coast of the Gulf 
of Mexico. Evidently, the fish matures earlier in tropical waters, but no specific 
differences have been noted. 
This species is known at present from Chesapeake Bay to Surinam. It is quite 
common on the Gulf coast of the United States and also appears to be common 
generally throughout the West Indies. It is not now known to be common on the 
Atlantic coast of the United States, only two specimens having been examined — 
one from Chesapeake Bay and the other from the Indian River inlet in Florida — 
but more intensive collecting on the coast of the Southern States may reveal its 
presence there in considerable numbers. In the author’s experience on the coast 
of Louisiana, while common where it does occur, it was rather localized to a few 
salt-water ponds. It evidently needs a certain ecological environment for its exist- 
ence. It was not obtained in seining open beaches. It was found chiefly in two 
marshy lagoons connected with Barataria Bay, at the east end of Grand Isle and at 
Rasor Island (the latter is known on hydrographic maps as Queen Bess Island). 
These lagoons, at low tide, are reduced to mere ponds disconnected from the main 
body of water. The bottom is muddy.. At the first couple of drags of the seine these 
fishes would not be captured at all or but a few would be taken; but after the water 
was muddied by dragging the seine back and forth, they would be taken in consider- 
able numbers. 
