1740 Bulletin //, Uiiited States National Museum, 



Tetraodon tetosus, RosA SMITH (now Mrs. Eigenmann), Bull. Cal. Ac. Sci., ii, 6, Nov. 13, 

 1886, Mexico. (Type, a dried skin, No. 2996, Mus. Cal. Ac. Sci.) 



68o. COLOMESUS, Gill. 



Les Batrachopes, Bibhon, Kevue Zoologique 1885, 279 (prittacus). 



Batrachops, Hollaed, Etudes sur les Gymnodontes, 321, 1857 (psittacus), oame preoc 



cupied. 

 Colomesus,GiiA., Proc. TJ. S. Nat. Mus. 1884,422 (psittacus). 



This geuus is externally similar to Spheroide>i, but differs strikingly in 

 the strut'tiue of the skull, the frontal bones being narrowed and excluded 

 from the orbit, the postfroutals being elongated, projected forward and 

 connected with the prefrontals ; snout very obtuse ; dorsal and anal short, 

 rounded. Nostrils as in Spheroides, on each side a hollow papilla with 

 2 openings. Vertebra' 8 + H- One species ; South American. {Ho?L6'i, 

 defective; jiudoi, middle; from the narrowed frontals excluded from the 

 orbits.) 



2158. COLOMESUS PSITTACUS (Bloch & Schneider). 



D. 11; A. 9. Body short and thick, covered with small, 2-rooted spines, 

 except on snout, around pectoral tin, and ou caudal peduncle; some 

 8]»ine8 behind dorsal in adult; spines on sides with their points directed 

 toward the back. Snout very obtuse, slightly concave behind lip, its 

 length less than interorbital width. Eye rather large, not j^ interorbital 

 width, much nearer tip of snout than gill opening. Pectoral and caudal 

 truncate, other fins rounded. Brownish, with 6 dark cross bands on 

 back, the 2 bands between dorsal and pectoral sometimes confluent, 

 the band behind i>ectoral and that at base of caudal most distinct; 

 pectoral dusky at base; no distinct spots anywhere. Eiver mouths, 

 Guiana and northern Brazil, rather common; not known to descend to the 

 sea. Recorded from the Rio Blanco, Essequibo, Maranon, and Capiu at 

 Para; also from the West Indies. (tpirraHo?, parrot, from the form of 

 the beak.) 



Ostraeion tetraodon, Seba, Thesaurus, etc. (pre-Linnseau). 



Tetrodon ptittaeus, Bloch & Schneider, Syst. Ichth., 505, 1801, Malabar; Gunther, 



Cat., VIII, 286, 1870. 

 Cheilichthys asellus, Mullek & Troschel in Schomburgk, British Guiana, in, 641, 1842, 



Guiana. 

 Cheilichthys psittacut, Steindachner, Icb. Mittheil, ii, 1861, 141, pi. 4, fig. 2. 



Family CLXXIII. CANTHIGASTERID^. 



(The Sharp-nosed Puffeks.) 



This family includes small Puffers, similar in external appearance to the 

 Tetraodontidw , but with the snout sharp and the back more or less com- 

 pressed or ridge- like. The skeletal characters by which the group is 

 defined are thus given by Dr. Gill : Medifrontals separated from the supra- 

 occiptal by the intervention of the spheuotics which are couuected 



