I 



1H8G.] PEOCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 235 



.//. Sides of head aud body always prickly; as is the back from upper lip to 

 base of dorsal ; belly prickly from lower liji to veut ; prickles 

 all similar, small, mostly 3-rooted, stiif aud close set, rather 

 largest posteriorly on back and belly, never obsolete ; sides 

 without cirri; color dark olivaceous above, somewhat marbled 

 and dotted with black ; black blotches on lower part of sides 

 in the form of short cross-bars, somewhat oblique, the one 

 nearest behind pectoral most conspicuous ; caudal hn i)lain or 



nearly so, the tip darker Maculatus, 7. 



ee. Interorbital space rather broad and flattish, its width more than half 

 length of snout; sides with no distinct series of dark blotches 

 bounding the white of the belly ; back and sides with numer- 

 ous irregular round black spots and usually with curved cross- 

 streaks, often appearing as arcs of concentric circles. 

 g. Skm of back and sides perfectly smooth ; skin of belly smooth or with 

 a few prickles embedded in folds of the skin. Color brown, 

 "with very numerous small round dark spots above; usually 

 pale curved cross-bars present, in the form of concentric rings, 

 one on middle of back in front of dorsal, another surrounding 

 this, the remainder appearing as bars, anteriorly running down- 

 wards and backwards, posteriorly downwards and forwards. 



No cirri. (Adult form of S. testudineiis?) Politus, 8. 



gg. Skin of back from nape to before dorsal fin covered Avith small, 

 sparsely-set prichles ; belly from throat to before anal with 

 prickles which are rather larger and. more closely set; axil 

 usually prickly; sides sometimes with cirri. 

 7i. Curved lines and streaks on the back whitish, paler than the ground 

 color; usually arranged as follows: a circle or rhomb on the 

 middle of the back before the dorsal fin ; an ellipse surround- 

 ing this; before this three or four cross-streaks extending 

 downward and backward, the one at the nape and the one 

 behind the eyes connected on the median line ; back and sides 

 with many irregular round blackish spots of different sizes ; a 

 dark bar at base of pectoral, caudal dusky at base, then pale, 



the posterior half blackish Testudineus, 9. 



i. Snout rather short, the eye nearer the end of the snout than the 



gill-opening Annulatus 9 (a). 



ii. Snout rather longer, the eye nearer the gill-opening than the end 



of the snout Testudineus 9 (6). 



7(7(. Curved lines, streaks, and circles on the back black, darker than 

 the ground color; snout rather short, the eye being nearer end 

 of snout than gill- openings ; in all other respects essentially as 

 in testudineus FORMOSUS. 10. 



2. Sphaeroides pachygaster. 



Tetrodon (Cheilichthys) pachygaster Miiller «&, Troschel in " Schomburgk's Hist. 



Barbadoes, about 1840,677." (Barbadoes.) 

 Tetrodon pachygaster Giinther, VIII, 287, 1870. (Copied.) 



ZTa&i/af.— West Indian fauna. "A scarce sjiecies around Barbadoes." 

 This species is known to us only from the brief diagnosis copied by 

 Giintber from Miiller & Troschel. 



It is probably the adult form (length 14 inches) of some species which 

 is i)rickly when young-. It may be the same as S. trichocephaliis, or pos- 

 sibly an old example of S. testudineus. The latter is not known, how- 

 ever, to have the angles of the caudal produced even in old examples. 



