FISHES PHENOMENAL AND ECONOMICAL. 



191 



formidable teeth of a large specimen being liable to lead to a loss of flesh, blood, 

 and with any but evenly-balanced minds serenity of language and temper. 



One other interesting member of the order of the Plectognathi is included 

 in Chromo-Plate VII. This is the Tasmanian Porcupine-fish, or prickly Globe-fish, 

 as it is sometimes called, Chilomycterus jaculiferus, Fig. D. It very nearly resembles 

 the common Porcupine-fish, Diodon maculata, of the tropical Australian coast-line 

 but possesses more slender spines and other obscure points of distinction. When 

 brought to the surface of the water it shares with the familiar tropical species the 

 property of inflating itself with air into an almost perfect sphere, around which the 

 spines stand rigidly erect. A fish thus floating and inflated was always observed 

 to occupy a considerable interval, it might be half-an-hour, in getting rid of the 

 injected air and thereby recovering the capacity to descend again into the profun- 

 dities of its native element. 



The Toad-fishes, belonging to the genus Tetrodon, which are very abundantly 

 represented in Australian waters, possess the same power of inflating their bodies, 

 and are on this account pre-eminently distinguished in Australia by the title of Blow- 

 fishes. Several of the smaller varieties, and notably a handsome golden-green, black 

 spotted form, Tetrodon Hamiltoni, are plentiful on the Tasmanian coast, but the larger 

 species of a foot or more in length are chiefly limited to the tropics. It is worthy of 

 remark that the members of this genus are notoriously poisonous, and that several 

 fatalities have occurred in both Tasmania and on the Australian mainland through the 

 injudicious participation in a meal of Toad-fish. A portrait of the above-named 

 common and highly poisonous Tasmanian species is annexed. 



TASMAXIAN TOAD-FISH, TetrOt/Otl Hamiltoni. TWO-THIRDS NATURAL SIZE. 



