FILEFISH NEW TO THE FAUNA OF THE UNITED STATES. 
277 
plates engraved in Cuba. After describing tbe long- snouted species of filefisli locally 
known as ‘‘bja trompa,” or trumpet tish, wliicli Poey in 18G3 described as Ahitera 
picUirata and which has by other writers been identified with Alntera scripta (Osbeck), 
Parra gives the following description of “lija barbuda”: 
There is only this dift’ereuce from the foregoing, that in place of the trumpet it has below the 
month an enlargement in the shape of a beard, and that the head for its whole length is much larger; 
that the spine located between the eyes is much longer, and that throughout its length it is thinner. 
The tail is much shorter, as if cut vertically. The color is generally ashy, without any marking. 
A facsimile of Parra’s figure is herewith presented. 
In reviewing the ichthyological part of Parra’s work, Poey has accorded high 
praise to that author in a paper entitled “Enumeration of the fish described and 
figured by Parra, scientifically named by Felipe Poey,” from which the following 
extract is made : 
The work cites no authors, contains no classification, no scientific terms, and the names are all 
popular ones. It is easily seen that Parra has studied no books except the great book of nature; by 
his own natural gifts he has succeeded in describing and figuring objects as correctly as his cotempo- 
raries, and even surpasses Bloch in the exactness of his figures. Cuvier says: “It is one of the most 
useful works in the study of the fishes of the Gulf of Mexico, not only on account of the text, but 
also on account of the very exact figures representing them.” Parra docs not omit describing the 
teeth of the jaws, the asperities of the scales, nor even the spinous rays of the dorsal fin and the 
furrow in which they can bo hidden. He dwells more especially on the number and peculiarities of 
the fins, and he can not be reproached for omitting in his descriptions details that are shown in his 
figures. He observes, very properly, that the colors are less important than the rest of the organism, 
for he only treats of them last. To be sure, he neglects the palatine teeth, the spines of the operculum, 
the denticulations of the preoperculum, the exact number of the spinous and soft rays; but this is not 
surprising in one who preceded Cuvier A Valenciennes, and who probably was not acquainted with 
the Avorks of Artedi, Liniimus, or Grouovius. — (Proc. Acad. Sciences Phil., vol. xv, pp. 174-180, 1863.) 
