300 



BULLETIN OF THE BUBEAU OF FISHEEIES 



114. Burrfish (Chilomycterus schwpfi Walbaum) 

 Pokcupinefish ; Rabbitfish; Oysteefish 



Jordan and Evermann, 1S96-1900, p. 1748. 



Description. — The burrfish resembles the puffer (p. 29S) in general appearance 

 and in the location of its dorsal and anal fins, but its skin is armed with short, stout, 

 triangular spines instead of being merely prickly. These spines are sparsely scat- 

 tered all over the trunk, with about 9 or 10 from nose to tail along any given line. 

 Furthermore, the burrfish is oval in outline, not fusiform like the puffer; the open- 

 ings of its nostrils are prolonged in a single tubular tentacle; the bony jaw plates are 

 not divided by a median suture as they are in the puffer — hence each jaw apparently 

 is armed with a single very broad incisor instead of with two; the pectoral fin is not 

 only much larger than in the puffer but is situated behind instead of below the gill 

 opening; the eye is round, not oval; and the anal fin is below, not behind the 

 dorsal. We need only note in addition that these two fins (there is no spiny dorsal) 



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Fig. 139.— Burrfish ( Chilomycterus schapfti) 



are both rounded and of 10 to 12 rays, the caudal is very narrow and round-tipped, 

 the pectorals are much broader than long, and that there are no ventrals. 



Color. — The ground color varies from green to olive or brownish above, with 

 pale, usually yellow tinted, belly. The back and sides are irregularly striped with 

 olive brown, dusky, or black lines that run roughly parallel with one another and 

 obliquely downward and backward. There is a dark blotch on each side at the 

 base of the dorsal fin, a smaller one between the latter and the anal, one above the 

 base of the pectoral, and a fourth close behind the latter fin. 



Size. — Length to 10 inches. 



General range.- — Coast of the United States, Massachusetts Bay to Florida; 

 plentiful from the Carolinas southward. 



Occurrence in the Gulf of Maine. — A specimen from Massachusetts Baj* now 

 in the collection of the Boston Society of Natural History affords the only record of 

 this southern fish in the Gulf. Like so many other southern species it is only a 

 chance stray to the Gulf of Maine. 



