1708 Bulletin //, United States National Museum. 



Size large. East Indies; once doubtfully recorded from Acapnlco. Very- 

 close to Canthidennis maculatus, if really diftereut. It lias still fewer fin 

 rays if the figure of Bleaker and the description of Lay & Bennett can be 

 trusted. (Named for Francis Willughby, the learned author of Historia 

 Piscium, inl686.) 



Balistes willughheii, Lay & Bennett,* Zoology of Beechey's Voyage, 68, pi. 21, fig. 2, 



1839, Acapulco. 

 ? Balistes maculaUis, Bleekee, Atlas Iiid., pi. 218, fig. 4, 1862, East Indies ; not of Bloch. 



670. XANTHICHTHYS, Kaup. 



Xanthichthys^ QLaw) Richardson, Encyclopedia Britanuica, Ed. xu, 313, 1856 (cM>«,sia- 

 vicus) . 



Body oblong, covered with moderate-sized smoothish scales, those on 

 posterior part of body usually with blunt keels ; no eulargod scutes behind 

 gill opening; no lateral line, or ouly a trace at the shoulder; a groove 

 before eye; 3 to 5 narrow grooves on the cheek. Caudal peduncle deeper 

 than broad; dorsal spines comparatively small, 2 only; soft dorsal and 

 anal moderately elevated, the tips acute; caudal lunate; mouth small, 

 placed high, the teeth as in Balistes; the lower jaw much projecting; 

 ventral Haps undeveloped, immovable, and scaled over. Cliielly American ; 

 2 species known; allied to Canthidennis, but differing in several regards, 

 especially in the grooved cheeks, projecting chin, and fewer dorsal spines. 

 {^avSoi, yellow; Ix^iv'i, fish, which is not true of any species; possibly 

 Xanthium, the cocklebur; z'^Qr'S, fish, was intended.) 



* The following i.s the full text of the description of Lay & Bennett: 

 "■ Bal. oblongo-ovalin, infra confertim albido guttatus; squainis lateralibus posticisque 

 subspiuosis; pinuis dorsali sucunda analique elevatis, triangularibus; caudali triloba. 

 D. 3, 20; P. 14; V. — ; A. 17 ; C. 12, Plate xxi, tig. 2. Guaperva. lonija, etc, Will., Ichth. 

 App., p. 21, tab. r, 20 ; Ray, Syn. Pise, p. 48. Prickle or longest File-fish, Grew, Rav., p. 113, 

 tab. 7. Hab. iu Oceano Pacifico, propo Acapulco. A speciimn of this fish was preserved 

 by Captain Belcher, R. N., and presented by him to the Museum of the Zoological Society. 

 Its form is more elongated than is usual among its congeners, its height being less than i 

 of its total length. Its surface, as in other i^-pocies of Balistes, is divided into compart- 

 ments, of which those behind the gill openings on each side are not evidently larger than 

 the adjoining ones, their distinct ion in this part Iieing very faintly marked': each of the 

 comjiiirtments ]Mistirior to tlic jxctoral tins, cxci-)iting those of the'back and licUy, is fur- 

 uished, toward its uuti-ridr )i;ni, w itli a sliort «iiitish, somewhatspinoiis, tulii-rclc, din'cti'd 

 backwards. On tlie fail these tubercles toriii 9 rows, but none of tliciii is sulticieiitly 

 strong to deserve tlie name of spines, and they can only be regarded as representing the 

 strong armature of this part iu some other species. The total length is 11 inches, of which 

 the caudal fin occupies 2 inches. From the tip of the nose to the anterior part of the 

 orbit the distance is If inches; the diameter of the orbit, | of an inch; the anterior ray 

 of the first dorsal fin, 1 inch in length, is placed 1 inch behind the orbit; length of the 

 first dorsal, 1 inch; between it and the second dorsal, IJ inches; length of second dorsal, 

 2 inches, that of its fourth ray being 2J inches; from its termination to the base of the 

 caudal, li inches; length of the outer ray of the caudal, 2 inches, of the middle rays, 1|; 

 from the base of the caudal to the anal tin, 1 J inclies; base of the anal fin, IJ inches, its 

 fourth ray being 2 inclies in length ; hence to I lie \ entral, which is J of an inch in length, 

 IJ inches. The pectoral fins are moderate, 1 inch iu length by 5 in their greatest breadth. 

 The greatest height is above tbe ventral fin; it is here SJ inches; tlie depth across the 

 tail is 1 inch. The only distinct mention of this fish which we liave met is contained in 

 the works of Willughby, Rav, and Grew, whose several figures and descriptions rest all 

 apparently on a single specimen, existing in their time In the Museum of the Royal 

 Society. Of the identity of our species with theirs it is almost impossible to entertain a 

 doubt. The synonyms quoted from them are referred by Bloch and succeeding writers to 

 the Balistes maculatus, Bloch, a species ditt'eringin various respects, and particularly by 

 its greater comparative breadth, its longer dorsal and anal fins, and the larger number of 

 rays in these tins.' (Lay .V I'.i-nnett.) 



j Xdiithirlithjix. Kaup: M:irkcd furrows on the face; 2 rays in the first dorsal ; no shields 

 behind the gilL o])eiiiiig; 1 species, X. curassavicus. (Richardson, I. e.) 



