1720 Btilletiyi 4.7, United States National Museum. 



Subgenus ALUTERA. 



2138. ALUTEllA MOXOCEROS (Osbeck). 



(LiJA Barbuda.) 



Depth 2\ to 2f . D. I, 48 ; A. 50 ; vertebra} 7 + 13. Body oblong ; snout 

 produced, -with upper profile convex. Dorsal spine slender, short, not 

 i longer than eye, above middle of orbit. Lower part of gill opening 

 in advance of eye; pectoral fin below posterior part of orbit. Caudal fin 

 subtruncate or double concave, with acute angles; much shorter than 

 head, and shorter than its own peduncle ; dorsal and anal fins low ; ven- 

 tral spine none. Skin finely velvety. Color uniform brownish olive, or 

 grayish, finely mottled with darker, the region below dorsal with faint 

 dusky spots amid paler reticulations. AVest Indies ; ' also recorded from 

 the East Indies and Japan, where it is said to be rare and to be used as 

 food, {monoceros, the unicorn; /.lovoi, one; xepag, horn.) 



Oapriscus tnurium dentibun miniitis, Klein, Ichth. Missus, ni, 25, 1742, pi. 3, fig. 9, very bad, 

 no locality. 



Balistes mo7ioceros, OsBECK, Iter Chineusis, 110, 1757, Asia; LiNX.EUS, Syst. Nat., i, Ed.x, 

 327, 1758 ; after Osbeck. 



Balistes oblongiusculus, etc., Gronow, Zoopliyl., No. 193, 1765, Indian seas. 



Lija barbuda, Parra, Dif. Piezas Hist. Nat., 48, pi. 22, fig. 2, Havana. 



Balistes kleinii, Gmelin, Syst. Nat., 1788, Indian seas; alter Gronow aud Klein. 



Balistes barbatus, Walbadm, Artedi Pisciurn, iii, 4G4, 1792; after Klein. 



Balistes monoceros, var. unicolor, Bloch &. Schneider, Syst. Ichth., 463, 1801 ; after Gmelin. 



Balistes serraticornis, Fr^minville, Nouv. Bull. Sc. See. Philom., No. 67, 249, pi. 4, tig.l, 1813. 



Aluteres berardi, Lesson, Voyage Coquille, Zool., 108, pi. 7, 1828, New Guinea. 



Alutera cinerea, Temminck it Schlegel, Fauna Japon., Pois8., 292, pi. 131, fig. 1, 1847, 

 Japan. 



Alutarius aniphaeanthus, Bleeker, I. c, 23, pi. 2, fig. 5, East Indies. 



Alutarius obliteratus, Cantor, Malayan Fishes, 353, 1850, Pinang. 



Balistes lingtiatula, Gronow, Cat., Ed. Gray, 35, 1854, Indian seas ; after Balistes oblongi- 

 usculus, etc., of Gronow. 



Aluterus anginosus, Hollard, Ann. Sci. Nat., iv, 1855, 11, East Indies. 



Balistes unicornus, Basilewsky, Nouv. Miira. Soc. Nat. Moscow, x, 263, 1855, China. 



Alutarius macracaiithus, Bleeker, Verh. Bat. Gen., Balist., XXIV, 22, pi. 3, fig. 6, 1862, East 

 Indies. 



Alutera guntheriana, Poey, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila. 1863, 184, Havana. 



Monacanthus monoceros, Gunther, Cat., viii, 251, 1870. 



Suborder OSTRACODERMI.t 

 (The Trunk Fishes.) 



This group includes those Plectognaths which are without spinous dorsal 

 and which have the body inclosed in a 3-angled, 4-angled, or 5-angled box 

 or carapace, formed by polygonal, bony scutes, firmly joined at their 



* The American species seems to be identical with the East Indian Alutera inonoceros. 

 Should differences appear on comparison of specimens, the former should apparently 

 stand as Alutera guntheriana, Poey. 



t For an excellent review of the species of this group, see Goode, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. 

 1879, 261. See also Hollard, "Monographic de la famille dcs Ostracionides," Anuales Sci. 

 Nat. 1857. 



