FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 



297 



The dorsal spine is relatively shorter and the lower jaw projects considerably 

 beyond the upper. The soft dorsal (about 36 rays) originates behind the middle of 

 the trunk and is rounded in outline, and the anal (about 36 rays) corresponds to it 

 in size, outline, and position. The short rounded pectorals are situated below the 

 oblique gill opening and the caudal is relatively narrower here than in the other 

 filefishes or triggerfishes. 



Color. — Described as varying from uniform olive gray to rich orange yellow or 

 milky white above, mottled with darker hues of the same tints ; bluish white beneath ; 

 the caudal usually yellowish in the adult but sometimes dusky, edged with white. 



Size. — Maximum length about 2 feet. 



General range. — Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the United States; not uncommon 

 in summer as far north as Cape Cod; casual to Portland, Me. 



Fig. 137. — Orange fileSsh {Alutera schcepfii) 



Occurrence in the Gulf of Maine. — Although the foolfish is not uncommon at 

 Woods Hole during the summer, only three specimens have been reported east of 

 the elbow of Cape Cod — one from Portland, Me., and two from Salem, Mass. — all 

 of them taken many years ago. Evidently it reaches the Gulf of Maine only at 

 long intervals as a waif from the south. 



THE PUFFERS AND PORCUPINE-FISHES. FAMILIES TETRAODONTID.S; AND 



DIODONTID.a; 



These two families are so closely allied to each other — not only anatomically 

 but in general appearance — that they may be mentioned together. They have but 

 one dorsal fin (the soft rayed), the spiny dorsal being entirely obsolete, and they 

 lack ventrals. Their gill openings are reduced to short slits like those of their 

 allies, the triggerfishes and tilefishes (pp. 293 and 294), their teeth are fused into 

 cutting plates, and they are scaleless. The two families are separable by the struc- 

 ture of the teeth, as described below in the accounts of the two species concerned, 

 and by certain anatomical characters. 



KEY TO GULF OF MAINE PUFFERS AND PORCUPINE-FISHES 



1. Skin set with large conical spines Burrfish p. 300 



Skin merely prickly Puffer, p. 298 



