12 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



trunk-fish he thought different, having two spines on the tail, while 

 Lister's figure seemed to show one spine ahove it. This Nagg's Head 

 specimen Artedi called Ostracion triangulabus duohus aculeis in fronte 

 et totidem in into ventre suhcaudalesque hinis." 



Next came Linnseus, 1758, who named Lister's figure and the species 

 it represented Ostracion tricornis, which should in strictness have heen 

 Ostracion income, as oarpaxiov, is a neuter diminutive. The Kagg's 

 Head fish he named Ostracion quadricornis. The right name is Ostra- 

 cion tricornis, because the name tricornis stands first on the page; but 

 Ostracion quadricornis has been most used by subsequent authors, it 

 being nearer correct as a descriptive phrase. 



In 1798, Lacepede changed the name of Lister's fish to Ostracion 

 listeri, a needless alteration which could only make confusion. 



In I8I18, Professor Mitchill, receiving a specimen from below New 

 Orleans, thought it different from tricornis and quadricornis and called 

 it Ostracion sex-cornutus. Hollard in 1857 named a specimen Ostracion 

 maculatus, and at about the same time Bleeker named two others from 

 Africa which seem to be the same thing, Ostracion guineensis and 

 Ostracion gronovii. Lastly Poey calls a specimen from Cuba Acanthos- 

 tracion polygonius, thinking it different from all the rest, which it may 

 be, though the chances are to the contrary. 



This brings up the question of the generic name. Among trunk- 

 fishes there are four-angled and three-angled kinds, and in each form 

 species with and without horns and spines. The original Ostracion of 

 Linnaeus we may interpret as being based on Ostracion culicus of the 

 coasts of Asia. This we call the type species of the genus, as the Nagg's 

 Head specimen of Artedi was the type specimen of the species quadri- 

 cornis, or the one that was used for Lister's figure, the type specimen 

 of tricornis. 



Cuhicus is a four-angled species, and when the trunk-fishes were 

 regarded as a family, Ostraciidas, the three-angled ones, were set off as 

 a separate genus. For these forms two names were offered, both by 

 Swainson in 1839. For trigonus, a species without horns before the 

 eyes, he gave the name Lactophrys, and for triqueter, a species without 

 spines anywhere, the name of Rhinesomus. Several recent American 

 authors have placed the three-cornered species, which are all American, 

 in one genus, which must therefore be called Lactophrys. Of this name 

 Rhinesomus is a synonym, and our species should stand as Lactophrys 

 tricornis. The fact that Lactophrys, as a word (from Latin lactus, 

 smooth, Greek oypu?, eyebrow; or else from lactoria, a milk cow 

 and ocppuq) is either meaningless or incorrect makes no difference with 

 the necessity for its use. 



In 1862, Bleeker undertook to divide these fishes differently. 

 Placing all the hornless species, whether three-angled or four-angled in 



