o 00 PAPERS FROM TORTUGAS LABORATORY vol. xxxiv 



Prickles on the back are less evident than one might anticipate from some 

 descriptions. They are, indeed, usually wanting. When present, the area they 

 occupy is of very variable extent. Sometimes it is only a small patch above pec- 

 toral origin; sometimes it extends from interorbital space nearly to dorsal origin. 

 No prickles on sides, but the under surface of head and trunk, except for small 

 areas behind jaws and before anus, is abundantly supplied with them; dorsal 

 and anal regularly with 8 and 7 rays respectively, of which the 1st in each equals 

 only about one-third the base of the fin; pectoral rays 12 to 14, besides an upper 

 vestigial ray. 



Dorsal surface gray when the fish is over light bottom, its fine mottling simu- 

 lating the appearance of the sand. Among Thalassia the mottled gray is replaced 

 by green continuous with the permanent green on the sides. This ground color, 

 speckled and spotted with darker, becomes lighter below, replaced abruptly by 

 white at the level of the lower margin of the longitudinal series of dark spots, 

 which with the two dark bars on the caudal are diagnostic. W. H. L. 



The collection contains 18 specimens, 65 to 157 mm. long, which apparently 

 belong to this species. Four of these were taken in two hauls, one made east of 

 Bird Key reef, and the other to the southeast of Bird Key. The others are with- 

 out a locality label. 



The following proportions and enumerations are based on 3 specimens, 93, 

 115, and 130 mm. in length: Head 2.8, 3.0, 2.9; distance from snout to origin of 

 dorsal 1.4, 1.4, 1.4. Eye in head 4.9, 4.5, 4.5; snout 1.8, 2.0, 1.9; interorbital (bone) 

 6.75, 6.4, 5.5; caudal peduncle 5.6, 5.3, 5.8; pectoral 2.7, 2.9, 2.6. D. 8, 8, 8; A. 7, 

 7, 7; P. 13, 13, 13, exclusive of uppermost rudimentary ray. 



Atlantic coast of tropical America to Florida, sometimes straying northward 

 to Cape Cod. S. F. H. 



Sphoeroides dorsalis Longley 



Tetrodon (Spheroides) harperi Metzelaar (not of Nichols), Trop. atl. Vissch., 1919, p. 170 



- — St. Eustatius. 

 Spheroides marmoratus Breder (not of Ranzani), Bull. Bingham Oceanog. Coll., vol. 1, 



art. 1, 1927, p. 79 — Green Cay, Bahamas. 

 Sphoeroides dorsalis Longley, Carnegie Inst. Wash. Year Book No. 33, 1934, p. 259 — 



Tortugas, Florida. Longley and Hildehrand, Carnegie Inst. Wash. Pub. 517, 1940, p. 280, 



fig. 27. 



Family CANTHIGASTERIDAE. Sharp-nosed Puffers 



Canthigaster rostratus (Bloch) 



Tetrodon rostratus Bloch, Ichth., vol. 1, 1782, pi. 146 — India. 

 Tetrodon ornatus Poey, Repertorio, vol. 2, 1868, p. 433 — Cuba. 



Spheroides asterias Blosser, Ann. Carnegie Mus., vol. 6, 1909, p. 300, pi. 12, fig. 2 — St. 

 Croix. 



Rather rare at Tortugas. A single specimen, 95 mm. long, was speared outside 

 Bird Key reef while diving; 2 others were seen at a depth of 2% fathoms, east of 

 East Key; and one was found in the waste from the tern rookery on Bird Key. 



