63 



barbels. Slender acute spines stud the whole integument 

 except the lips, a narrow ring round the eye, the fins and 

 their bases, with the greater part of the trunk of the tail. 

 The ground colour is blackish gray on the back, and paler 

 on the sides and belly, and nine or ten blackish longitudi- 

 nal streaks traverse the whole body. The caudal is dark- 

 ish, and there are some dark shades on the dorsal and anal, 

 but the original tints of colour have perished through the 

 long immersion of the specimen in spirits. 



Length 4i^ inches. 



Hab. Port Jackson. 



Tetrodon hamiltoni. Hichardsou. 



Radii :— D. 9 ; A. 6 ; C. 7| ; P. 15. 



Tetrodon hamiltoni, Ricliardson, MS. Cat. of Hasl. Mus. ; List of 

 New Zealand Fishes, DieiFenbach's Travels, &c. Appendix. 



Plate XXXIX., figs. 10 and 11, natural size. 



Specimens of this Tetrodon have long existed in the 

 Museum of Haslar, to which they were presented by Sur- 

 geon Hamilton of the Royal Navy, who procured them in 

 Port Jackson. It appears to be an abundant species iu 

 that locality, as the examples of it are numerous in Sir 

 James Ross's collection. 



The belly is capable of moderate distention, so as to ac- 

 quire a considerably greater convexity than the back, but 

 so that the height and width of the body are equal, and 

 then the profile is oblong-oval, the height being one-third 

 of the total length. The nasal orifices are seated in a pout- 

 ing papilla, and the inner surface of the lips is fringed by- 

 short skinny processes. The skin is rough with short sim- 

 ple spines on the back from the nostrils to the caudal, and 

 also on the under surface for the same distance. The 

 flanks are partially rough, minute spines existing on the 

 cheeks, a space behind the pectorals connecting the upper 

 and under spinous surfaces, and also an arch of the tail. 

 The smooth parts are, all the fins and a circle round their 

 bases, including the axilla of the pectoral, the lips and 

 snout back to the nostrils, the chin, circle round the or- 

 bit, margin of the gill-opeuing and the middle of the flanks 

 back to the caudal fin, — the smooth space naiTovving consi- 

 derably posterior to the anus, and being bounded beneath 

 on the tail by a kind of raised porous seam or lateral line. 

 The back is thickly mottled with round spots and minute 

 specks in the interstices. The larger spots on the fore part 

 of the back are ranged in transverse rows, more distinctly 

 in some individuals than in others. The flanks are 

 marked by a series of oval black blotches from the mouth 

 to the tail ; and the under surface is white. 



The specimens vary from three to five inches in size. 



Mrs. Meredith in her ' Notes of New South Wales,'* 

 speaks of this Tetrodon in the following terms. " A dis- 

 gusting tenant of most of the shores around Sydney, is the 

 toad-fish : most admirably named ; it looks precisely like 

 a toad elongated into a fish, with a tough, leathery, scale- 

 less skin, and a bloated body, dark mottled brown above, 



* London, Murray, 1844. 



and white beneath. It is usually about five inches long, 

 and disproportionately broad, but swims very swiftly, and 

 is for its size, as bold and voracious as the shark. When 

 I said Mr. Meredith did not fish with the rod, I might have 

 added that he could not, for the toad-fish, which swarm 

 everywhere, no sooner see anything dropped in the water, 

 than they dart towards it by dozens, and fight among 

 themselves for the honour of swallowing your hook, gene- 

 rally taking the precaution to bite off your line at the same 

 time. This extreme anxiety to be caught might perhaps 

 be pardoned, were the greedy little wretches fit to eat, but 

 they are highly poisonous ; and although I should have 

 thought their disgusting appearance sufficient to prevent 

 their being tried, I know one instance at least, of their fatal 

 effects ; a lady with whose family I am intimate having 

 died in consequence of eating them. As they thus effectu- 

 ally put a stop to our angling by biting off every hook 

 drop]3ed in the water before any other fish had time to look 

 at it, they especially enjoyed the benefit of the fishing 

 spear, upon which many hundreds, if not thousands, must 

 have been impaled in succession. This sounds very wan- 

 tonly cruel, but let no one pronounce it so who is not well 

 acquainted with the toad-fish ; from those who are, I fear 

 no reproof. When speared, they directly inflate their 

 leathery skins like a balloon, and eject a stream of liquid 

 from their mouths, with a report as if they had burst. If 

 flung again into the water, however wounded, they instantly 

 swim about and begin eating ; and should one be a little 

 less active than his fellows, they forthwith attack and eat 

 him up. Even my poor little harmless friends, the crabs, 

 become their victims ; when those usually well-armed 

 troops have just got their soft new coats on, and are almost 

 defenceless, then come the cowardly, ravenous toad-fish, 

 and make terrible onslaughts among them, an attention 

 which I believe the crabs eventually repay with interest." 

 (p. 15.5). 



Hab. Sea-coasts of Austraha, Van Diemen's Land, and 

 New Zealand. 



MoxACANTHUs GRANULATUs. White [BaUstes). 



Radii :— D. 2|— 30 ; A. 28 ; C. 12 ; P. 11. 



BaUstes granulatus, White, Voy. New South Wales, p. 295, pi. at p. 

 254, lower figure. 



Plate XL., fig. 1, natural size ; 2, magnified. 



Mr. White's figures of fish are in general rudely drawn, 

 and in this one there is a want of detail for the proper dis- 

 crimination of tlie species. We are, however, induced to 

 consider a Monacanthus obtained by Sir James Ross at 

 Sydney as the same with White's, because the ground co- 

 lour, the grains by which the body appears to be studded, 

 the profile and the place of capture are the same. 



All that White says of his fish is included in the follow- 

 ing sentences. " Batistes pinna dorsali anteriore bira- 

 diatd, corpore granoso. Valde affinis B. papilloso Linnaii. 

 Corpus albido-cinerascens, papillis parvulis aspersum. 

 Thorax relut in sacculum productns." 



Schneider refers White's fish to the BaUstes papillosus 



