THE FISHES OF PORTO RIOO. 
181 
above this a pearly-purplish area; below it a flesh-colored or rosy area or band, 2 scales broad, then a 
succession of about 16 narrow streaks alternately flesh-colored and yellow, growing fainter progressively 
below; yellow on edges of scales, reddish on their middles; iris fiery-red; lower parts of head flesh-color 
with some yellow spots;- maxillary mostly yellow; caudal deep yellow, its edges reddish; dorsal chiefly 
yellow; anal faintly yellow; ventrals and pectoral translucent. 
In spirits, all markings fade, leaving fins yellowish, upper parts grayish, lower rosy-silvery. 
Found from southern Florida to Brazil, generally abundant; known from Biscayne Bay, Key West, 
Cuba, Martinique, St. Kitts, Jamaica, Porto Rico, and Brazil; at Key West, where it is called “ yellow- 
tail” or “ rabirubia,” it is even more abundant than the lane snapper, and is the principal fish served 
at the Key West hotels and boarding-houses in the fall. It is said to be plentiful throughout the year 
except during the winter, when unusual cold may drive them away. During the warmer weather 
they are found at a depth of 2 fathoms or more, usually in about 5 fathoms, and generally about shoals 
where there is some mud bottom. The spawning time in Florida is said to be in July, when they 
are found about the reefs from Miami to the Tortugas. 
In Porto Rico this fish is called “colirubia,” and is an abundant and important food species. 
It was seen by us at most of the places visited, and specimens are in the collection from Mayaguez, San 
Antonio Bridge, Puerto Real, Ensenada del Boqueron, Ponce, Arroyo, Hucares, Fajardo, Culebra, and 
Isabel Segunda. Mr. Gray’s collection from San Geronimo also contains several. 
This species attains a length of about 2 feet and a weight of 3 or 4 pounds or more, and is quite 
gamy. The average weight of those seen at Key West was probably not over a pound. Those seen 
in Porto Rico were somewhat larger. At Key West they are caught with hook, using sardine bait. 
Acara pitamba, Marcgrave, Hist. Brasil., 155, 1648, Brazil. 
Rabirubia , Parra, Descr. Dif. Piezas, Hist. Nat., pi. 20, fig. 1, 1787, Cuba. 
Spams chrysurus Bloch, Ichthyol., pi. 262, 1790, Brazil; after Marcgrave. 
Anthias rabirubia Bloch & Schneider, Syst. Ichth., 309, 1801, Cuba; after Parra. 
Spam s semiluna Lac£p6de, Hist. Nat. Poiss., IV, 141, 1803, Martinique; on a copy of a drawing by Plumier. 
Mesoprinn aurovittatus Agassiz, Spix, Pise. Brasil., pi. 66, 1829, Brazil. 
Ocyurus rijgersmod Cope, Trans. Am. Phil. Soc. 1871, 468, St. Kitts. 
Ocyurus Poey, Fauna Puerto-Riquena, 321, 1881. 
Ocyurus chrysurus, Jordan & Evermann, 1. c., 1275, 1898. 
Genus 79. RHOMBOPLITES Gill. 
This genus is closely allied to Neomxnis, but cranial peculiarities and extension of villiform teeth 
over pterygoid and hyoid bones well warrant generic separation. Form of vomerine patch of teeth 
is also somewhat peculiar. Prefrontals with articular facets developed from simple tubercles and 
not V-shaped, posterior areas cribriform; basisphenoid not lobigerous; pterygoid with a broad patch 
of teeth (in adult); hyoid bones and tongue with teeth; canines very small or obsolete; dorsal spines 
12, soft rays 10 or 11; gillrakers slender and numerous. But one species known. 
134. Rhomboplites aurorubens (Cuvier & Valenciennes). Cagon cle lo Alto. 
Head 3; depth 3; eye 3.4; snout 3.9; maxillary 2.7; mandible 2.2; interorbital 4; preorbital 8.5; 
D. xii, 11; A. hi, 8; scales 8-68-16, about 50 pores. Body elongate, irregularly elliptical, the back 
not greatly elevated, highest at nape; profile regularly and strongly con'vex from above eye to spinous 
dorsal; snout rather short and bluntish, its upper profile straight and steep; eye very large; inter- 
orbital space very convex; preorbital narrow; mouth small, oblique, lower jaw somewhat projecting; 
maxillary scaleless, reaching front of orbit; upper jaw with a broad band of villiform teeth, outside 
of which is a row of enlarged, but comparatively small teeth; no canines; lower jaw- with one series 
somewhat stronger than outer teeth of upper jaw; inside of these is a rather broad villiform band of 
teeth in front of jaw only; tongue with a very broad irregularly ovate patch of teeth, its width almost 
as great as width of tongue, 1.5 in its length; in front of this patch is a large roundish patch of teeth; 
an oblong patch of teeth on hyoid bone; vomer, with a rhomboid (O-shaped) patch of teeth, forming 
almost a right angle in front, with a broadly wedge-shaped backward prolongation on median line, its 
length about twice its width; palatine band of teeth very wide; pterygoids with a large patch of teeth, 
these teeth undeveloped and covered by skin in young examples. Gillrakers numerous, longest about 
half diameter of eye, about 6 + 21. Preopercle with posterior margin almost straight and vertical, 
slightly emarginate, weakly serrate above, teeth coarser at angle and on lower border; posterior nostril 
larger, nearly round. 
