FAMILY GYMNODONTIDE — TETRAODON. 329 
This description of Dr. Mitchill, which is unfortunately too concise, seems to announce a 
new species, and as such I have introduced it here. I have never seen a specimen, but have 
been accustomed to regard it as being possibly the young of the following species. ‘This 
doubt can only be cleared up by a minute and more careful examination. 
THE LINEATED PUFFER. 
TETRAODON LEVIGATUS, 
PLATE LVI. FIG. 182. — (CABINET OF THE LYCEUM.) 
T. levigatus. Linnevs, Syst. p. 411. 
Le Lisse. BonNATERRE, Encycl. Method. p. 24, pl. 16, fig. 52 (bad.) 
T. levigatus, Rabbit-fish. Scumrrr, Schriften der Naturf. Vol. 8, p. 189. 
Tamboril, Parra, Des. diff piezas, &c. p. 37, pl. 19. 
T. levigatus, Brown Globe-fish. MrrcniLt, Report, &c. on the Fishes of New-York, p. 28. 
T.. mathematicus, Mathematical Tetrodon. Ip. Trans. Lit. and Phil. Soc. Vol. 1, p. 474, pl. 6, fig. 6. 
Characteristics. Olive-green above. Belly only furnished with sharp prickles. The upper 
part of the body with series of mucous pores, forming numerous lines. 
Length one to two feet. 
Description. Body elongated, cylindrical, tumid in front, and gradually tapering behind. 
Abdomen pendulous. Summit of the head, between the eyes, plane ; facial line descending 
to the jaws with a gentle slope. Many series of mucous pores above. One series on each 
side, curving under the orbits, and passing through the nostrils, (in the figure, this is inaccu- 
rately represented ;) from the posterior part of this circle, on each side, proceed two others ; 
the superior ending abruptly on a transverse row above the base of the pectorals ; the other 
passes along the back, on each side, with a broad convex curve, descending to the space be- 
tween the dorsal and anal, and then going off straight through the centre of the tail. Head 
not distinct from the body. ‘Teeth remarkably robust, acute, and contiguous in front above, 
separated at the base. Eyes large, longitudinally oval, near the facial outline, with prominent 
orbits. Nostrils double, contiguous; the posterior with a filament. Lips fleshy and thick. 
Branchial aperture crescent-shaped, and just anterior to the pectoral fin. All above, and on 
the sides, smooth ; chin and throat smooth. Abdomen, for an area which extends to within 
two and a half inches from the anal, and ascending up to the inferior part of the base of the 
pectorals, armed with spines. These spines or prickles are a tenth of an inch long, directed 
backwards, and trifid at the base; they are arranged in rather regular transverse series, and 
when the abdomen is distended, are about four-tenths of an inch apart. 
The dorsal fin irregularly trapezoidal, emarginate above, and arises 13°0 from the end of 
the jaws. It contains fourteen rays, of which the first is very robust, the second 2°8 high; 
they then rapidly diminish to the eighth, after which they very gradually decrease in length. 
Pectorals short, broad, excavated behind, with seventeen rays. The upper ray 1°8 long; 
the ninth, tenth, and eleventh shortest. Anal similar in shape and size to the dorsal, under 
Fauna — Parr 4. 42 
