OSTRACIONTIDAE 



{Box fish) 



Box fish are by far the most singular fish in the Red Sea and 

 in the world. Their prismatic bodies, quadrangular in the 

 genus Ostracion and triangular in the Lactophrys^ are covered 

 with scales that are strongly joined to each other in mosaic 

 fashion. Only the fins and tail have an epidermis with 

 flexible peduncles. This rigidity of the teguments and 

 restriction of the action of the fins make their movements 

 ungainly. 



They are certainly original. In some species lengths may 

 reach fourteen inches. If it were not for their laterally situated 

 eyes, their little fins and their colouring, which is generally 

 lighter underneath, it would be extremely difiicult to know 

 if you were looking at their ventral, dorsal or lateral facet — 

 all three or four are quite flat. An anatomical examination 

 of the fish does not help. Laparotomy reveals only an in- 

 testinal accumulation, a limited muscular system (the rigidity 

 of the teguments prevents movement), and a vertebral 

 column placed so high along the back as to be almost in 

 contact with the inner surface of the skin. It is an incompre- 

 hensible fish without any apparent place in the economy of 

 the universe. It is highly unlikely that any other fish prey 

 upon it because with such a shape and those teguments it 

 would lie heavily on the stomach of even the most famished 

 shark. 



One day a native showed me a small specimen which 

 looked like an eighteenth-century snuff-box. He called it one 

 of nature's jokes. What more is there to say? 



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