FMIILY, II— GTMNODONTES. 699 



A. — Jaws with a median suture. 

 Genus, 2 — XENOPTEEns (Bibron), Dumeril. 



Chonerhinus, Bleeker. 



Branchiostegals five. Back rounded : jaws divided by a median suture. Nostrils funnel shaped with fringed 

 margins. Dorsal and anal fins with many rays (23 to 38). PaHs of the body covered with fine dermal spines, 

 having double or treble roots. 



These fislies, like the Tetrodons, are able to inflate their bodies with air and float on the water, abdomen 

 uppermost. They ascend large rivers, far above tidal influence. In some parts of Burma they are eaten, but 

 their bites are dreaded, and the Burmese assert that where they abound should anyone fall into the water they 

 attack him in droves, and almost immediately cause death by biting pieces out of his body. They readily take 

 a bait either of a piece of meat or a small fish. 



Xenopterus naritus, Plate CLXXXII, fig. 1. 



Tetraodon naritus, Richardson, Voy. Samarang, Fish. p. 18, pi. viii (adult) ; Cantor, Mai. Fish. p. 383, 

 pi. X (young) ; Bleeker, IBlootk. p. 21, and Borneo, p. 439. 



Tetrodon grandispina, Van der Hoeven, Handb. Dierk. 2nd Edit, ii, p. 275. 



Xenopterus Bellangeri (Bibron), Dumeril, Rev. Zool. 1855, p. 281. 



Chonerhinus naritus, Bleeker, En. Pise. Arch. Ind. p. 202, and Atl. Ich. v, p. 77, t. ccxi, f. 2 ; Blyth, 

 J. A. S. of Beng. 1860, p. 173. 



Xenopterus naritus, Giinther, Catal. viii, p. 271. 



B. V, D. 32-38, P. 19, A. 28-32, C. 12. 



Length of head rather more than its distance from the base of the dorsal fin. Eyes— rather small : 

 interorbital space broad and flat. Lips thick and fringed. TeetJi—the lower a little larger than the upper 

 pair. Fins—the length of the base of the dorsal exceeds the length of the head, it is highest in the middle, but 

 its highest point is not equal to that of the body : anal similar to but rather smaller than the dorsal : caudal 

 slightly emarginate. Spines— with 2 or 3 roots, large, rather widely separated, situated between the eye and 

 base of the pectoral fin, above which they are continued a short distance : also present for a short distance behind 

 that fin and along the abdominal surface nearly as far as the vent. OoZoitra— pale yellow, darkest along the 

 back and in the lower 2/3 of the dorsal fin. 



Habitat. — Through the rivers and estuaries of Burma to the Malay Archipelago. 



Genus, 3— Tetrodon,* Linnaeus. 



Leisomus, Lagocephalus, Girrhisomus and Psilonotus, Swainson : Kolacanthus, Gray : Prilonotus and 

 AncMsomus, Kaup : Tropidichthys, Bleeker : Promecocephale, Dilobomyctere, Ambhjrhynehote, Geneion, 

 Gatophorhyngue, Batrachops, BhyncJwte (Bibron) Dumeril : Bhyiichotus, Apsicephalus, Brachycephalus, 

 Hollard. 



Back broad, or compressed into a ridge. Either jaw with a median suture. Should a conspicuous nasal 

 organ exist: there may be tiooon either side in a papilla (Tetraodon, Bleeker) : or a single tubular one (Crayracion, 

 Bleeker) : or an imperforate one having a fringed edge and the body spiny (Ghelonodon, Miiller) : or a simple round 

 cavity and the body smooth (Monotretus, Bib.) : or two imperforate tentacles on either side (Arothron, Mull.) : or the 

 nasal organs maybe inconspicuous, and the back compressed into a keel (Anosmius, Peters). Dorsal and anal fins 

 with few rays. Body wholly or partially covered with fine dermal spines, or such may be absent. There may be a 

 more or less distinct fold along the lower paH of the tail, and very apparent nasal organs^ (Gastrophysus, Miill.) : 

 or should the fold be absent, but the body be spinate and the nasal organs very distinct (Gheilichthys, Miill.) : or the 

 fold be absent and the skin smooth (Liosaccus, Giinther). A poHion of the cesophagus dilatable and able to be 

 distended with air. Air-vessel present and horse-shoe shaped. 



The Tetrodons are termed Kuddul mah-cutchee, or " Sea Frogs " by the natives of Malabar, on account 

 of the noise they make when captured : although they are occasionally eaten by the lower classes, they are 

 Baid to occasion indigestion, so are usually avoided, whUe all of them emit an odour the reverse of agreeable. 

 The native doctors sometimes prescribe them in cases of lung afl'ections. The Burmese in some districts 

 consider these fishes to be poisonous, but in other localities they eat them, being very careful to first remove 

 the gall-bladder, which they assert occasions all the poisonous sj-mptoms. The Japanese eat one species as a 

 means of enabling them to commit suicide. The Andamanese eat these fishes, as 1 personally witnessed : they 

 appeared rather to prefer them to some of the better kinds. Hamilton Buchanan observed the fishes of this 

 genus are eaten by the poor, but are considered as indifferent food. Bleeker remarked on their poisonous 

 qualities at Batavia, where some species are prohibited from being sold : he enumerates T. oblongus and 

 T. reticularis as very venomous, T. stellatus as venomous, but says that T. lunaris is eaten. Cantor likewise 



* Kappa, Tel. : Plachee, Tarn. Globe or puff fishes. 



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