REVIEW OF THE PARROTFISHES FAMILY SCARIDAE By Leonard P. Schultz Introduction This review of the parrotfishes of the world was undertaken in order more correctly to identify and understand the relationships of those species encountered during the preparation of volume 2 of U. S. National Museum Bulletin 202, "Fishes of the Marshall and Marianas Islands." It is based principally on the several thousand specimens, together v,'ith many photographs and drawings in color, in the collections of the U. S. National Museum, and on my own color notes and sketches made from live parrotfishes. Additional specimens were loaned by Drs. Reeve M.Bailey, Univer-sity of Michigan ; Loren P. Woods, Chicago Natural History Museum; and Norman B. Marshall, British Museum (Natural History). Dr. Robert R. Harry loaned all the material recorded from Ifaluk, Kapin-gamarangi, and Raroai AtoUs. Drs. James Bohlke, Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, Howard A. Winn, University of Maryland, and John E. Bardach, University of Michigan, through the loan of their recently collected specimens from Bermuda and the Bahamas, together with their notes and personal observations, made it possible to work out the sexual dichromatism in Scarus croicensis and Sparisoma aurqfrenatum. In late 1953 I was able to study the types of parrotfishes in the British Museum (Natural History), the Indian Museum, in Calcutta, and the Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle, in Paris. To the authorities of these institutions and to my colleagues who have been so helpful I wish to express my apprecia-tion for their kindness. And especially for their cooperation in sup-plying fresh material before the color patterns faded, I extend particu-lar thanks to Vernon Brock, Richard Rosenblatt, and Drs. William A. Gosline, Bruce Halstead, Robert R. Harry, John Randall, Donald Strasburg, and Howard A. Winn. For over a century the parrotfishes have been known as one of the most diflficult and confusing families of reef fishes in systematic ichthyology, and no previous attempt has been made to revise them on a world basis. Recognition of species in this family is difficult and in many cases most uncertain. As is true of other reef fishes, 1
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