Fig. 320.—Razor-fish, Xyrichthys psittacus (Linnæus). Tortugas, Fla.
Fig. 321.—Redfish (male), Pimelometopon pulcher (Ayres). San Diego.
Fig. 322.—Lepidaplois perditio (Quoy & Gaimard). Wakanoura, Japan.
Scarcely less numerous are the species of the Pacific Coast of America. Pimelometopon pulcher, the redfish or fathead of southern California, reaches a length of two feet or more. It abounds in the broad band of giant kelp which lines the California coast and is a food-fish of much importance. The female is dull crimson. In the male the head and tail are black and on the top of the head is developed with age a great adipose hump. A similar hump is found on the adult of several other large labroids. Similar species on the coast of South America, differing in color and size of scales, are Pimelometopon darwini, Trochocopus opercularis, and Bodianus diplotænia. The señorita, Oxyjulis californica, is a dainty cream-colored little fish of the California coast, Halichœres semicinctus, the kelpfish, light olive, the male with a blue shoulder bar, is found in southern California. On the west coast of Mexico are numerous species of Thalassoma, Halichœres, Pseudojulis, Xyrichthys and Iniistius, all different from the corresponding species in the West Indies, and equally different from the much greater variety found in Hawaii and in Samoa. About the Polynesian and West Indian islands abound a marvelous wealth of forms of every shade and pattern of bright colors—blue, green, golden, scarlet, crimson, purple—as if painted on with lavish hand and often in the most gaudy pattern, although at times laid on with the greatest delicacy. The most brilliant species belong to Thalassoma and Julis, the most delicately colored to Stethojulis and Cirrhilabrus. In Gomphosus the snout is prolonged on a long slender tube. In Cheilio the whole body is elongate. In Iniistius the first two dorsal spines form a separate fin, the forehead being sharp as in Xyrichthys. Other widely distributed genera are Anampses, Lepidaplois, Semicossyphus, Duymæria, Platyglossus, Pseudolabrus, Hologymnosus, Macropharyngodon, Coris, Julis, Hemipteronotus, Novaculichthys, Cheilinus, Hemigymnus, and Cymolutes. Halichœres is as abundant in the East Indies as in the West, one of its species Halichœres pæcilopterus being common as far north as Hakodate in Japan. In this species as in a few others the sexes are very different in color, although in most species no external sexual differences of any sort appear. In the East Indian genus, Pseudocheilinus, the eye is very greatly modified. The cornea is thickened, forming two additional lens-like structures.
The small family of Odacidæ differs from the Labridæ in having in each jaw a sharp cutting edge without distinct teeth anteriorly, the pharyngeal teeth being pavement-like. The scales are small, very much smaller than in the Scaridæ, the body more elongate, and the structure of the teeth different. The species are mostly Australian, Odax balteatus being the most abundant. It is locally known as kelpfish.
In the Siphonognathidæ the teeth are much as in the Odacidæ, but the body is very elongate, the snout produced as in the cornet-fishes (Fistularia), and the upper jaw ends in a long skinny appendage. Siphonognathus argyrophanes, from Australia, reaches a length of sixteen inches.
The Parrot-fishes: Scaridæ.—The parrot-fishes, or Scaridæ, are very similar to the Labridæ in form, color, and scales, but differ in the more or less complete fusion of the teeth, a character which varies in the different genera.