202 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
I am somewhat in doubt concerning the relationship of this species to X. infirmus, ■ 
which it resembles in many respects, but the coloration is always difierent, and there 1 
are other points of distinction which may be observed in the descriptions of the two. ||j 
There is no doubt that this is the species which we have long known as Xyrichthysm 
lineatus O. & V., but, as Poey has noticed, it is probably not the same as Coryphcena^l 
lineata of Gmelin. kl 
Xyrichthys psittacus (L.). i 
The only large exami)le of this sjiecies available for comparison with the type of || 
X. vermiculatus Poey is No. 31915 of the Museum catalogue. It was taken by Silas 
Stearns at Pensacola, Fla. The length of the example is 207 millimeters. The shape 
of the body is similar to that of X. vermiculatus^ and the profile of the head is about the 
same. The width of the preorbital at the angle of the mouth is nearly one-half the * ■ 
length of the head and contains the length of the eye only about two and one-third i 
times. The eye in X. psittacus, if we may depend upon the material at hand, is always 
larger than in X. vermiculatus. The maxillary scarcely reaches the vertical from the j 
front of the eye, its length is about two-sevenths of the greatest length of the head 
measured somewhat obliquely over the tip of the snout to the tip of the opercular flap. 
The canines show nothing different from those of the species already mentioned. !] 
There are no posterior canines. ij 
The eye is distant from the upper profile of the head about one-half of its own |! 
diameter, which is contained less than five times in the length of the head, even less i 
than five times in the greatest length of the head from the tip of the snout to the tip of f 
the opercular flap. ’ 
Scales below the orbit in two series, the lower series containing two scales. The | 
interorbital width equals the short diameter of the eye. The distance from the snout 
to the eye is one-sixth of the total length to caudal base, and about three-fifths of the i 
greatest length of the head. ; 
The length of the head, measured on the axis of the body, is contained three and 
two-thirds in the total without caudal. 
The greatest height of the body at or a little behind the ventral origin equals one- 
third of the total length without caudal. 
The first two dorsal spines are flexible. The length of the first is less than one-third 
of the length of the head. Length of the ninth spine is more than a third of the length 
of the head. Length of the first soft ray is more than two-fifths of the length of the 
head, and the last ray is more than one-half the length of the head and equals the 
least height of the caudal peduncle. 
The anal spines are short and rather blunt, the third being scarcely longer than 
the eye. The first soft ray is about three-sevenths as long as the head, and the last 
ray is equal to the last ray of the dorsal. The caudal is very slightly rounded ; its 
middle rays from the end of the scales is contained five and two-thirds times in the 
total to caudal base. 
The ventral spine is one-fourth as long as the head, the first ray reaches to the 
vent. The length of the fin is contained five and two-thirds times in the total length 
without caudal. 
The pectoral is contained about four and three-fourths times in the total length 
without caudal. 
