DIODON RETICULATUS. 91 



of Toi,orrig, the Archer, some Red-Sea species of the genus ; but his de- 

 scription will not allow us to identify it with the particular kind here 

 figured, and which I now proceed to describe. 



Shape unwieldy, heavy-looking, ovate or pear-shaped ; large and thick at the 

 shoulders, pointed towards the tail ; the back flat, and straight from above the 

 eyes to the dorsal fin, whence it descends a little to the root of the caudal fin : 

 the breast and belly very convex and protuberant, even when not inflated. 

 Front descending rather steeply before the eyes. Mouth very slightly prominent, 

 wide and transverse like a Toad's, with thick and flabby or blubbery lips, wrinkled 

 or rough with small papillae ; furnished within with a large thick and strong bony 

 plate, of a single undivided piece, in front of each jaw : the outer edge of this 

 bone in both jaws is raised into a sort of lip or margin; behind which is a 

 roughened carious-looking groove or channel which separates this raised bony 

 edge from a flat-topped gibbous rude sort of disk, divided into two compartments 

 by a sufficiently distinct but perfectly inseparable suture, reminding one of Tetrodon, 

 to which there is here an evident approach. This disk and the raised outer border 

 are of a whiter more compact bone, more approaching to enamel, than the rest. 



The eyes are large, oval, prominent, but with bony projecting brows, giving 

 them a peculiarly gloomy stem expression. They are placed laterally, not far 

 behind, but considerably above the corners of the mouth. The nostril is a sort of 

 shallow cup-shaped fleshy wart, or flat -topped caruncle, resembling a Peziza or 

 Phacidkim. The disk of this caruncle is of a loose flabby cellular texture ; and 

 a vertical section shows its pedicle to pass through a hollow cavity immediately 

 beneath the cuticle, and to be footed on the bottom of this cavity : but I failed in 

 discovering either in the disk or pedicle of the caruncle itself any perforation ; or 

 in the large cavity among the bones, beneath and around, but chiefly behind it, 

 the usual plaited pituitary membrane. Notwithstanding, we have evidently here 

 another highly curious, and, as far as I know, unobserved analogy developed 

 between these fishes* and Lophius piscatorius, L., in which, as M. Cuvier re- 

 marks, " Les narines, par une singularite remarquable, sont portees, comme des 

 champignons, chacune par un petit pedicule : la tete de cette espece de cham- 

 pignon contient la cavite de la narine, qui s'ouvre, comme a I'ordinaire, par deux 

 petits orifices."f 



The situation of this caruncle is in the usual place of the nostrils, about one 

 quarter of the distance from the fore comer of the eye to the tip of the upper 

 lip. 



Whole surface uneven with hard prominences and depressions or compartments 

 caused by its spines ; these forming, with their roots, a complete sort of bony 

 case or armour underneath the cuticle, which is itself thin, soft and perfectly 

 naked, smooth and even. The spines are distant, strong, short, thick, blunt, 

 conic or triangular, bony knobs ; their points directed backw^ards ; nowhere above 

 an eighth of an inch long, and scarcely, except from injury, protruding through 

 the cuticle, though sufficiently apparent to the touch ; reduced upon the nape, 

 cheeks, throat, breast, and belly, to mere tubercles. They spring from the 

 centre of generally three strong and broad grooved and ribbed bony roots, spread- 

 ing pyramidally under the cuticle, like three props placed to support a weight, 

 but at a very lov/ elevation, being nearly altogether in one plane. These roots 



* I have observed the same thing in Tetrodon ; but in Balistes or Capriscus the nostrils are as 

 usual. 



t Cuv. and Val. Hist. i. 472. — See also vol. xii. 347. 



