864 CONTRIBUTIONS TO NORTH AMERICAN ICHTHYOLOGY IV. 



back running longitudinally, those on the sides obliquely downward and 

 backward, those on the front of the head running crosswise; a dark bar 

 at base of dorsal; other fins plain. Body a little broader than deep at 

 the gill-openings; interocular space broad, concave; eyes large, lateral, 

 nearly as long as snout, each with a cirrus above it, longer than the pu- 

 pil; gill-opening about as wide as eye, opposite upper anterior part of 

 pectoral. About 9 spines between eye and tail, their height equal to 

 diameter of pupil; spines on belly much smaller, partly imbedded in skin; 

 some of the posterior with cirri; spines on caudal peduncle; anterior 

 root of each spine little if any larger than the others. Pectoral fin 

 deeper than long, the margin undulate, the upper lobe longest. Head 

 l' : J : depths. D. 12; A. LO; L. Cinches. Massachusetts to West Indies; 

 very abundant southward. 



(Diodon geomelricua Bloch & Schneider, 1801, 513: Diodon maculoatriatux Mitcbill, 

 Trans. Lit. & Phil. Soc. N. Y. i, 470, 1815; Giinther, viii, 310.) 



Subsp. (?) fialigiBiosiiS (Dek.) Goode & Bean. 



Dark brownish olive above, with wavy dusky lines; belly black, the 

 bases of its spines bright orange. Entire body covered with large 

 three-rooted spines, which are very numerous and close set, especially 

 on the belly; spines of the belly as large or even larger than those OIL 

 back; not imbedded. D. 12; A. 10. Atlantic coast, from Cape Cod 

 southward; not common; probably a young form of the preceding. 



(Diodon fuligtnoeus Dekay, New York Fauna, Fish. 324.) 



FAMILY CXXX. ORTIIAGORISCID.E. 



(The ffead-fitthen.) 



Body more or less short and deep, compressed, truncate behind, so 

 that there is no caudal peduncle. Skin rough, naked, spinous or tes- 

 sellated. Mouth very small, terminal; teeth completely united in eacli 

 jaw, forming a bony beak without median suture, as in ]>io<l(i. Dorsal 

 and anal fins similar; posterior, more or less perfectly continent around 

 the tail: no spinons dorsal; no ventral fins; pelvic bone undeveloped; 

 pectorals present. Belly not inflatable; gill-opening small, in front of 

 pectorals; an accessory opercular gill; no air-bladder. Fishes of the 

 open seas, apparently composed of a head to which small tins are at- 

 tached. Cicnera .'5; species 1. Found in most warm seas. 

 v, group Mulinn (liiuthrr, viii, :!l?-:'>-JO.) 



