608 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Group PLECTOGNATHI 



Suborder SCLERODERMI 

 Family BALISTIDAE 



Triggerfi sites 



Genus J^XLISTES (Artedi) Linnaeus 



Body compressed, covered with thick, rough scales or plates 

 of moderate size, 50 to 75 in a lengthwise series; a naked groove 

 before eye below nostrils; lateral line more or less developed, 

 very slender, undulate, conspicuous only when the scales are 

 dry, extending on the cheeks. Pelvic flap large, movable, sup- 

 ported by a series of slender, pungent spines. Caudal peduncle 

 compressed, its scales unarmed, without spines or differentiated 

 tubercles similar to those on rest of body. Gill opening with 

 enlarged bony scutes behind it; cheeks entirely scaly, without 

 naked patches or grooves. Both jaws with irregular, incisor- 

 like teeth, usually four on each side in each jaw. First dorsal 

 of three spines, the anterior of which is much the largest, the 

 second acting as a trigger, locking the first when erected; the 

 third nearly as large as second and remote from it; second 

 dorsal and anal long, similar to each other, in the adult always 

 falcate or filamentous in front; caudal fin rounded, with the 

 outer rays much produced in the adult; branchiostegals six; 

 vertebrae 7+10. Species rather few, chiefly American; some of 

 them straying to the Old World. 



Subgenus CAPRJSCUS Rafinasque 

 294 Balistes carolinensis Gmelin 







Leather Jacket" Turbot; Triggerfish 



Balistes carolinensis GMELIN, Syst. Nat. I, 1468, 1788, Carolina; BEAN, 



Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. IX, 368, 1807; H. M. SMITH, Bull. TJ. S. 



F. C. 1897, 104, 1898; JORDAN & EVERMANN, Bull. 47, U. S. Nat. Mus. 



1701, 1898, pi. CCLVIII, fig. 632, 1900. 

 Balistes capriscus GMELIN, Syst. Nat. I, 1471, 1788, Indian & American 



Oceans; GUNTHER, Cat. Fish. Brit. Mus. VIII, 217, 1870; GOODE & 



BEAN, Bull. Essex Inst. XI, 3, 1879; JORDAN & GILBERT, Bull. 16, 



U. S. Nat. Mus. 855, 1883. 

 Balistes fuliginosus DE KAY, N. Y. Fauna, Fishes, 339, pi. 57, fig. 188, 



1842, New York. 



