170 TELEOSTEI: PLECTOGNATHI. — XXII. 



which the stomach may be greatly inflated and the fish float belly 

 upward out of reach of its pursuers. 



a. Back not carinated, skin without scutes; nostril on each side with two 

 openings. 

 b. 1). and A. falcate, or 12 to 15 rays; C. lunate; vertebra? 20; nostrils ses- 

 sile; mucous tubes on head very conspicuous. Lagocehhalus, 243. 

 bb. P. and A. short, rounded, of 6 to 8 rays; C. rounded; vertebrae 18; 

 nostrils at tip of a hollow papilla; raucous tubes not conspicuous. 



Okbidus, 214. 



243 LAGOCEPHALUS Swainson. (\aya>s, hare ; KtcpaXt), 



head.) 



481. L. laevigatas (L.). Rabbit Fish. Smooth Puffer. 

 Tambok. Olive green; silver-white below; belly with large 3-rooted 

 spims; skin elsewhere smooth. Head 3^; depth 4-|. D. 14. A. 12 

 L. 2 feet or more. Cape Cod to Brazil. (Lat., made smooth.) 



244. ORBIDUS Rafinesque. (Lat., orbis, a sphere.) 



482. O. maculatus (Bloch & Schneider). Common Puffer. 

 Swell-fish. Swell-toad. Sides of head and body always prickly, 

 as is back from upper Up to D. ; prickles all similar, small, close-set, 

 3-rooted, never obsolete. Dark olive above, marbled and dotted 

 with black ; black blotches on side forming short cross-bars ; C. 

 marly plain. Head 2f; depth 3. D. 7. A. 6. C. 7. L. 12. Cape 

 Cod to S. C, very common. (Tetraodon turgidus Mitchill.) 



Family XCII. DIODONITID^E. (The Porcupine-fishes.) 



Fishes similar to the Tetraodontidce, but having the teeth of each 

 jaw grown into one; body with rooted spines; stomach less ex- 

 tensively inflatable than in the Tetraodontidce. Genera 3 ; species 

 about 10, in warm seas, (bis, two; 68mv, tooth.) 



a. Spines robust, all fixed, and 3-rooted (some of them rarely 4-rooted); nasal 

 tube simple with two lateral openings. . . Chilomyctekus, 245. 



245. CHILOMYCTERUS (Bibron) Kaup. (xelAoj, lip; 



fiVK-r/p, nostril.) 



483. C. schcepfi (Walbaum). Burr-fish. Swell-toad. A 

 ridge above eye. Greenish, with series of parallel blackish stripes 

 covering most of the body above ; an ocellated black spot above P.; 

 a larger one behind it ; one at base of D. ; a smaller one below it ; 

 fins unspotted. Head 2f; depth 3. D. 12. A. 10. L. 6. Cape 

 Cud to Texas; very abundant S. (C. geometricus Bloch & Schnei- 

 der.) (Farther S. occurs Diodon hystrix L., larger, with longer 

 spines, of which some are 2-rooted and movable.) (To Johann 

 David Schopf, a Hessian surgeon in the Revolutionary War.) 



