Catalogue of the Fishes of Connecticut * 75 



* 



Order VI. Plectognathi. 



Family GymnodontidcB. 



*141. Diodon maculo-striatus, Mitchill, Spot-striped Diodon, 

 Stratford. 



> 



*142. Tetraodon turgidus, Mitchill, Swellfish, Puffer, very 



common. 



*143. Tetraodon mathematicus, Mitchill, Lineated Puffer, 

 Long Island Sound. 



144. Orthagoriscus mola, Linnaeus, Short-headed Sunfish, 

 Stonington. 



# 



Family Balistidce. 



*145. Monocanthus aurantiacus, Mitchill, Orange Filefish, 

 Stratford and Stonington. 



146. Monocanthus Massachusettensis, Storer, Massachusetts 

 Filefish, Stonington. 



*147. Monocanthus broccus, Mitchill, Long-finned Filefish, 

 Stonington. 



141. I have obtained several specimens of this singular fish in this town, and 

 nave seen it also at New Haven. As Dr. Storer had not named it in his valuable 

 Report, I forwarded him a specimen. The D . fuliginosus of Dr. Dekay , (plate 55, 

 fi o 181,) is unquestionably the young ofthe maculato-striatus, as I have the adult. 

 ' inches in length, with "lanceolate tail" which he says, constitutes the distinct- 

 we mark of his new species, (fuliginosus,) Mr. Ayres informs me that he has 

 re ln 4 u ished his specific name of nigrolineatus , as probably only a variety of this 

 species of Mitchill. 



* he D. verrucosus and pilosus of Dekay. are both probably in our Sound, but 

 ** nave not heen so fortunate as to obtain them, their insertion is omitted here. 



14 *2. The swell -fish, puffer, &c, has throughout our State, (I believe,) improp. 

 erl y the popular name of toad -fish, which ought to be applied only to the Batrachus. 

 *143. Upon the authority of Dr. Dekay, the lineated puffer is found from Rhode 

 Island to Mexico. Dr. Storer has recently obtained it in Massachusetts, as stated 

 ln the Boston Jour. Nat. Hist., Vol. IV, page 183. The specific name of latvigatus, 

 fir st proposed by Linnajus, and adopted by several other naturalists, appears in 

 mosi respects preferable to mathematicus. But as there are spines on the abdomen 

 e atter name is considered more appropriate. 



144. A large individual of the strangely constructed sun-fish, called also short- 

 eadm fish, wascaught in Stonington, in 1841, as Mr. Trumbull informs me. 



l 4o. The orange file- fish I obtained from the Housalouic, in August, 1841 — 



en gthl7 inches, width 4 inches, and 1 inch thick— horn upon the head 2 inches 



ixi 'ength, but was said to have lost one inch by accident before I received it. Two 



individuals taken at Stonington, same year, length of one 18 inches, and the other 



.inches, horn 4 inches. 



147. The long finned file-fish is nearly allied to the preceding species. Both are 

 common at New York, and also another species named by Dr. Dekay, M. sctifer. 



Wgm 



