274 PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



waters more remote from the equator, since the differences ot Tempera- 

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

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

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

 fresh water. The exquisite flavor and exceedingly wholesome nature 

 of the flesli of the 'triangulaire' should encourage us to make persever- 

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

 plish this acclimation, which would be important from more than one 

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

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

 tinue the experiment through many generations of the animal before 

 abandoning it completely, without artificial protection, to the climate in 

 which it is to be naturalized. We should do for 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 in their surface strata ; then we should lower the 

 temperature of the little pools in which the 'triangulaires' are kept by 

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

 of Europe 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 enduring the ordinary temperature of the fresh waters 

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



OSTEACION BICAUDALIS, Linn. 



Ostracion Mcaudalis, Linnaeus, Syst. Nat. ed. x, 1758, i, p. 330, No. 3 ; eel. xii, 1. 1766, p. 

 408. — Bloch, Ichtliyologie, iv, 1787, p. 109, p. cxxxii. — Gmelin, Linn. Syst. 

 Nat.i,1788,p.l441.— Lacepj^de, Hist. Nat. Poiss. etc., i, 1798, pp. 465-466; ed. 

 11, 1819, pp. 342-343.— Schneider, Bloch, Syst. Ichth. 1801, p. 499.— Shaw, 

 CuviER, R^gne Animal, ed. 1, p. 154 ; ed. ii, 1829, ii, p. 375. — Kaup, Archlv flir 

 Naturg. 1855, p. 217. — Hollard, Ann. Scl. Nat. vii, 1856, j). 153. — Poey, Rep. 

 Fis. Nat. Cuba, U, 1868, p. 442.— GUnther, Cat. Fish Brit. Mas. viil, 1870, p. 257. 



Ostracion hicaudale, Poey, Mem. sob. Hist. Nat. Cuba, vl, 1861, p. 362. 



Osiracium Ucandale, Cope, Proc. Amer. Phil. Soc. 1870, j). 474 (St. Martins). 



Lactophrys Mcaudalis, Swainson, Nat. Hist. Fish, Rept. and Amphib. 1839, ii, p. 323.— 

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



Piscis triangularis, parvus non nisi imo ventre cornntus, Lister, in App. Willughby Hist. 

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



Piscis mediocris triangularis, ad imtim ventrem prope caudam tantum eornutus, etc., Lis- 

 ter, 1. c. p. 20. —Ray, 1. c. p. 45. 



Ostracion triangulatus, tubercuMs hexaganis radiatis, aculeis duohus in imo ventre, Artedi, 

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



Ostracion triangulatus iotiiis maculosusactuberculosus, aculeis duobus in imo ventre, Artedi, 

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



C/iaj)f«o, Parra. rrMnfc-/s7i, Jamaica ' 



Chapin, Cuba. 



