THE FISHES OF PORTO RICO. 
175 
“pargo Colorado.” In Havana it is known as “pargo guachinango,” or “Mexican snapper,” because 
it was brought to that city from the coast of Mexico. In Porto Rico it is called “pargo Colorado.” 
The red snapper is strictly carnivorous, feeding upon small fish, crabs, prawns, and mollusks. It 
is caught only with hand lines and in 15 to 50 fathoms of water. As the fish are hauled up from these 
considerable depths the rapid decrease in external pressure permits the air-bladder to expand and the 
stomach is often forced out into the mouth of the fish and the stomach contents thrown out upon the 
deck of the smack. Among the material thus ejected may frequently be seen specimens of small fish 
or crustaceans still alive and only very slightly injured. In this way have been obtained the types of 
several new fishes and good specimens of many rare species. The stomach of the specimen painted for 
this report contained one Olivia shell and the partially digested body of a Trachurops crumenophthalmus. 
There is considerable sport in catching the red snapper. The line used is the size of an 
ordinary chalk-line; at its lower end is a sinker weighing about 3.5 pounds, consisting of a piece of 
lead shaped like a frustum of a cone, with the lower end hollowed out and filled with a mixture 
of lard and wax, for the purpose of determining the character of the bottom, as some of the sand, 
coral, shells, mud, or whatever the bottom is composed of, will stick to the wax and be brought up 
with it. On the line a few feet above the lead are attached two short lines, with hooks, not quite 
long enough to reach the lead. These hooks are baited with pieces of meat, bone-fish, lady-fish, or 
some other species. When a fish strikes, a quick jerk is given to fasten it and then the line is hauled 
in hand over hand. The red snapper does not ordinarily make any fight, but comes up as a dead 
weight until near the surface of the water, when, getting sight of the boat and fishermen, he becomes 
frightened and begins darting to right and left in the most frantic manner. The sport then is very 
exciting and, if the snapper be large, assistance may have to be called in order to finish the fight and 
lift the fish on deck. It sometimes happens that a fish is gotten on each hook at the same time. 
Acara aya Marcgrave, Hist. Brasil., 167, 168, 1648, Brazil. 
Bodianus aya Bloch, Ichthyol., 227, 1790, Brazil; after Marcgrave. 
Bodianus ruber Bloch & Schneider, Syst. Ichthy., 330, 1801, Brazil; based on Marcgrave. 
Mesoprion campcclianus Poey, Memorial, II, 149, 1860, Campeche. 
Lutjanus blackfordi Goode & Bean, Proc. U. S. N. M. 1878, 176, Pensacola. 
Neomsenis aya, Jordan & Evermann, 1. c., 1264, 1898. 
128. Neomsenis vivanus (Cuvier & Valenciennes) . Pargo dr lu Alto; Silk Snapper. 
Head 2.75; depth 3; D. x, 14; A. hi, 8; scales (7) 8-72-17, 50 pores. Body rather slender, sub- 
elliptical, back not greatly elevated; profile very slightly convex from snout to nape, thence more 
arched; snout rather long and pointed, 3 in head; eye rather large, 4 in head; interorbital space slightly 
convex, 4.8 in head, occipital keel not very prominent; preorbital rather broad, 5.8 in head; mouth 
rather small; jaws subequal; maxillary reaching front of pupil, 2.5 in head; upper jaw with a narrow 
band of villiform teeth, outside of which is a single series of well-developed teeth; 4 moderate canines in 
front of jaw, the longest two about half diameter of pupil; lower jaw with a single series of rather large, 
unequal teeth, inside of which is a very narrow band of villiform teeth in front of jaw only; tongue with 
an oval patch of teeth, about twice as long as broad, in front of which is a roundish patch; no teeth on 
hyoid bone; pterygoids toothless; vomer with a broadly arrow-shaped patch of teeth, with a backward 
prolongation on median line somewhat longer than width of patch in front. Gillrakers slender, 
their length almost equal to half diameter of eye, about 11 developed below angle, in front of these 
about 5 rudiments. Preopercle with posterior limb slanting slightly downward and forward, with a 
broad and rather shallow emargination, its margin finely serrate above; coarser teeth at angle and on 
lower limb; posterior nostril oval. Scales very small, rows running obliquely upward and backward 
above lateral line, rows being alm'ost horizontal; 7 rows of scales on cheek, 2 rows on interopercle, 
1.5 rows on subopercle, and about 8 on opercle; temporal region with 1 row of large scales, behind 
which are smaller ones; top of head, snout, and jaws naked; bases of soft dorsal and anal scaly. Dorsal 
spines rather strong, outline of fin rather strongly convex and without deep emargination ; fourth spine 
longest, 2.4 in head; tenth, 3.4 in head; margin of soft dorsal straightish, rounded behind, ninth ray 
longest, 1.33 length of first and two times last ray, 2.5 in head; caudal lunate, upper lobe slightly 
longer than lower, its length 1.5 times middle rays, which are 2 in head; margin of anal angulate, 
middle rays longest, 2 times length of last ray, 1.8 in head; first ray reaching almost to tip of last ray, 
when the fin is depressed; ventrals 1.66 in head; pectoral not quite reaching front of anal, 1.2 in 
head; second anal spine slightly longer than third, 3.25 in head, 
