1702 Bulletin 47, United States National Museum. 



Balistes caprinus, VALENCIENNES, Ichth. lies Canaries, 94, pi. 16, 1836, Canaries. 

 Balistes fuliginosus, DE KAY, N. T. Fauna: Fishes, 339, pi. 57, fig. 188, 1842, New York. 

 Balistes tceniopterus, POEY, Memorias, n, 326, 1861, Havana ; adult. 



2117. BALISTES FORCIPATCS, Gmelin. 



Head 3; depth 2 in adult. D. Ill, 26 to 28; A. 25 to 27; scales 60; eye 

 4-J- in head; snout 3$. General form of Balistes capriscus. First dorsal 

 spine stout, rough anteriorly; third spine small, inserted well behind 

 second; soft dorsal with the third, fourth, and fifth rays much elevated, 

 considerably longer than head, in males at least; anal rounded, its ante- 

 rior rays not elevated; caudal double concave, its upper rays produced 

 in a short acute lobe. Four, scapular plates 2 large, 2 small. Golden 

 brown above, yellowish below; sides of head with many greenish-blue 

 spots, oblong in form; a streak of similar color across snout; sides of body 

 with blue-black spots larger than those on head ; larger on lower parts 

 but most distinct on back; most of these with a pale ring or ocellus; soft 

 dorsal with similar spots, smaller and more ocellate ; anal with smaller 

 spots closer together; caudal unspotted; base of pectoral blotched with 

 black. Lateral line evident. (Stein dachner.) West coast of Africa and 

 the neighboring islands, apparently straying to America, if Balistes mori- 

 bundus and Balistes powelli are the same, as seems probable, (forcipatus, 

 having forceps, from the form of the tail.) 



Stipvisch, WILLUGHBY, Hist. Pise., Appendix, 7, pi. 9, f. 4, 1686, High Seas, near St. 



Vincent. 

 Guaperva lata forcipata, LISTER, in Willughby, Hist. Pise., Appendix, 21, pi. 1, 22, 1686, 



Brazil. 

 Balistes forcipatus, GMELIN, Syst. Nat., I, 1472, 1788, Brazil; after Guaperva lata of 



LISTER; GUNTHER, Cat., vm, 216, 1870. 



Balistes punctatus, GMELIN, Syst. Nat., i, 1472, 1788; after Stipvisch of WILLUGHBY. 

 Balistes spilotopterygius, WALBAUM, Artedi Piscium, in, 455, 1792, Brazil ; after Guaperva 



lata, LISTEE. 

 Balistes guttatus, WALBAUM, Artedi Pise., ill, 467, 1792, St. Vincent; after Stipvisch of 



WILLUGHBY. 



Balistes ciliaris, BLOCK & SCHNEIDER, Syst. Ichth., 471, 1801, Brazil; after LISTER. 

 Balistes liberiensis, STEINDACHNER, Ichth. Notizen, iv, 9, 1867, Monrovia in Liberia. 

 ? Balistes powelli* COPE, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila. 1870, 120, Newport, R. I. (young) ; 



JORDAN & GILBERT, Synopsis, 855. 1883. 

 Balistes moribundusj COPE, Trans. Amer. Phil. Soc. 1871, 479, St. Martins; young. 



woivn , omen ^ \ci_y wiicio win! scries 01 luugibuaiuauy o vtu azure spots; uurstu tuiu. uutu 

 fins marked with smaller blue spots. (Cope.) Newport, Rhode Island; a doubtful spe- 

 cies, probably the young of Balistes forcipatus; in any event a species straying from the 

 West Indies in the Gulf Stream. The shorter anal is the only evident character by which 

 powelli could be distinguished from forcipatus. (Named for its discoverer, Samuel Powell, 

 of Newport.) 



vwrc v*vugvo,opuiuua UBIIIUU, its posterior part movable, its nap witti ray-like spines ; 

 scapular plates about 4; anterior teeth acuminate; cheek scales numerous, rugose, no 

 naked fissures; anterior profile of head nearly straight; scales rough, their outlines in- 

 itmct, each with 2 rows of spinules, several in an anterior curved row, and 2 in a 

 posterior row ; no spines on caudal peduncle ; lateral line not evident in the type, prob- 

 ably appearing with age. Color brown, with many small, pale-blue spots all over sides of 



