274 PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSi'.UM. 



waters more remotci liora the equator, since the differences of teini)era- 

 ture presented by the water at different decrees of hititude are far less 

 marked than those of the atmosphere. On the one liand we know with 

 what facility fishes found only in the sea can be habituated to life iu 

 fresh water. The exquisite flavor and exceedingly wholesome nature 

 of tlie flesh of the 'trianoulaire' should encourage us to make persever- 

 ing and well considered experiments in this direction ; we might accom- 

 plish this acclimation, Avhich would be imi)ortant from more than one 

 point of view, by gradual steps ; we should gradually accaistom the 

 species to temperatures successively less warm ; we should even con- 

 tinue the experiment through many gener.itions of the animal before 

 abandoning it com])letely, without artificial i)rotection, to the climate in 

 which it is to be naturalized. We should do lor the 'triangulaire' what 

 has been done for many species of plants; we should bring individuals 

 of this species, and we should care for them through a long period in 

 water, which we should keep at a temperature closely resembling that 

 of the equatorial seas iu their surface strata; then we should lower the 

 temperature of the little i)ools in which the 'triangulaires' are kept by 

 almost insensible degrees and by very geutle variations. In the regions 

 of Euro])e and other parts of the globe, far removed from the tropics, 

 where the thermal currents flow, we might at least profit by these 

 naturally heated waters to give to the triangulaires that degree of heat 

 which is to them absolutely necessary, or to accustom them by insensi- 

 ble degrees to endnring the ordinary temperature of the fresh waters 

 or of the seas of those various regions." — (Lacepede, 1. c.) 



OSTRACION BICAUDALI8, Linu. 



Ostracion hicandaUs, Linx.eus, Syst. Nat. ed. x, 1758, i, p. 330, No. 3; ecT. xii, i. 17(10, p. 



408.— Bloch, Ichtliyologic, iv, 1787, p. 109, p. cxxxii.— Gmelix, Linn. Syst. 



Nat. i, 1788, p. 1441.— Lacep£:de, Hist. Nat. Poiss. etc., i, 1798, pp. 4U5-466; ed. 



ii, 1819, pp. 342-343.— Schneider, Bloch, Syst. Iclitli.' 1801, p. 499.— Shaw, 



CuviER, Regne Animal, ed. i, p. 154 ; ed. ii, 1829, ii,p. 375. — Kaup, Archiv fiir 



Naturg. 1855, p. 217.— Hollard, Ann. Sci. Nat. vii, 1856, p. 153.— Poey, Rep. 



Fis. Nat. Cuba, ii, 1868, p. 442.— GiJXTHER, Cat. Fish Brit. Mus. viii, 1870, p. 257. 

 Ostracion Ucaudale, Poey, Mem. sob. Hist. Nat. Cuba, vi, 1861, p. 362. 

 Ostraeium Ucaudale, Cope, Proc. Amer. Phil. Soc. 1870, p. 474 (St. Martins). 

 Laciophrys McaudaUs, Swainson, Nat. Hist. Fish, Rept. audAmphib. 1839, ii, p. 323.— 



Poey, Enum. Pise. Cubens. 1876, p. 176. 

 Piscis triaiifinlaris, jjaj-'rus non nisi imo ventre cornutus, Lister, iu App. Willugliby Hist. 



Pise. 1686, xiv, p. 20.— Ray, Syu. Method. Pise. 1713, p. 45. 

 Piscis mcdiocns triaugiilaris, ad imum vent rem prope candam fantiini cornntns, etc., hlS- 



TER, 1. c. p. 20. —Ray, 1. c. p. 45. 

 Ostvacion triangulatus, tuberculis hexagonis radiatis, acideis duobus in imo ventre, Artedi, 



Geu. Pise. 1738, p. 57, No. 9 ; Syn. Pise. p. 85, No. 13. 

 Ostracion trianf/nlatus totiiis maculosus ac tuberculosus, aculeis duohus in imo ventre, Artedi, 



Gen. Pise. p. 57, No. 8 ; Syn. Pise. 85, No. 12. 

 Chapino, Parra. rrttJ?t-/s/(, Jamaica 



Chapin, Cuba. 



