864 CONTRIBUTIONS TO NOETH AMERICAN ICHTHYOLOGY IV. 



back runDing longitudinally, those on the sides obliquely downward and 

 backward, those on the front of the head running crosswise; a dark bar 

 at base of dorsal ; other fins plain. Body a little broader than deep at 

 the gill-openings; iuterocular space broad, concave; eyes large, lateral, 

 nearly as long as snout, each with a cirrus above it, longer than the pu- 

 pil ; gill-oi)ening about as wide as eye, opposite upper anterior part of 

 pectoral. About 9 spines between eye and tail, their height equal to 

 diameter of pui^il ; spines on belly much smaller, jjartly imbedded in skin ; 

 some of the posterior with cirri; spines on caudal peduncle; anterior 

 root of each sjiiue little if any larger than the others. Pectoral fin 

 deeper than long,*the margin undulate, the upper lobe longest. Head 

 2f; depths. D. 12; A. 10; L. Cinches. Massachusetts to West Indies; 

 ve^ry abundant southward. 



(Diodon geometricus Bloch & Schneider, 1801, 513: Diodon maculostriafus Mitchill, 

 Trans. Lit. & Phil. Soc. N. Y. i, 470, 1815; Giinther, viii, 310.) 



Subsp. (?) fuBig^inosus (Dek.) Goode & Bean. 



Dark brownish olive above, with wavy dusky lines; belly black, the 

 bases of its spines bright orange. Entire body covered with large 

 three-rooted spines, which are very numerous and close-set, especially 

 on the belly; spines of the belly as large or even larger than those on 

 back; not imbedded. D. 12; A. 10. Atlantic coast, from Cape Cod 

 southward ; not common ; probably a young form of the preceding. 



{Diodon fuliginosus Dekay, New York Fauna, Fish. 3'24.) 



Family CXXX.— ORTHAGORISCID^. 



{The Sead- fishes.) 



Body more or less short and deep, compressed, truncate behind, so 

 that there is no caudal peduncle. Skin rough, naked, spinous or tes- 

 sellated. Mouth very small, terminal; teeth completely united in each 

 jaw, forming a bony beak without median suture, as in Diodon. Dorsal 

 and anal fins similar; posterior, more or less perfectly confluent around 

 the tail; no spinous dorsal; no ventral fins; pelvic bone undeveloped; 

 pectorals present. Belly not inflatable; gill opening small, in front cf 

 pectorals; an accessory opercular gill; no air-bladder. Fishes of the 

 open seas, apparently composed of a head to which small fins are at- 

 tached. Genera 3; species 4. Found in most warm seas. / 



{Gymnodontes, group Molina Glinther, viii, 317-3'20.) 



