Jordan and Evermann Fishes of North America. 1703 



Subgenus BALISTES. 

 2118. BALISTES VETULA, Linnaeus. 



(OLD WIFE; OLD WENCH; COCHINO.) 



Head 3; depth If. D. Ill, 29; A. 27; scales 63. Lateral line placed as 

 in Balistes carolinensis, but the median part, from base of first dorsal to 

 front of caudal peduncle wanting in the adult, branch on cheek ceasing 

 opposite gill opening; cross branch present; ventral flap well developed, 

 with slender, sharp spines. Scales on head much smaller and more crowded 

 than those on body ; third dorsal spine rather shorter and weaker than 

 second, remote from it ; caudal fin widely forked, the lobes filamentous 

 and about equal; dorsal in adult filamentous at tip; anal little elevated 

 anteriorly. Two curved, strongly marked, bluish, dark-edged bands on 

 the side of the head, the lower from the angle of the mouth toward the 

 throat, the upper from above the snout to the root of the pectoral; the 

 color persistent in alcohol; a black, light-edged line, similarly curved 

 below the eye ; several other similar lines radiating from the eye ; caudal 

 fin margined above and below with bluish, and with an intra-marginal 

 bluish band; dorsal and anal fins with transverse bluish bands ; young with 

 some irregular oblique black lines following the rows of scales. Tropical 

 parts of the Atlantic. This species, according to Day, occurs also on the 

 coast of India, but the Indian form, called Balistes vetula, has a larger 

 number of fin rays. Common in the West Indies ; occasionally northward 

 in the Gulf Stream as far as Woods Hole, (vetula, an old woman; a 

 name commonly used for the species in the West Indies, and 4 like .vieja, 

 its Spanish cognate, also applied to certain Labroids.) 



Ouaperva, MARCGRAVE, Hist. Bras., 163, 1648, Brazil. 



Turdug oculo radiato (the Old Wife) CATESBY, Hist. Carol, pi. 22, 1725, Bahamas. 



Balistes vetula, LINNJEUS, Syst. Nat., Ed. x, 329, 1758, Ascension Island; after Balistes 



vetula of OSBECK, Iter Chinensis, 294, 1757; GUNTHER, Cat., vm, 215, 1870; JORDAN 



<fc GILBERT, Synopsis, 855, 1883. 



Balistes bellus, WALBAUM, Artedi Piscium, in, 467, 1792, West Indies, after FROYER. 

 Chaliosma velata, SWAINSON, Class' n Fishes, n, 325, 1839, after Vetula; probably a misprint. 

 Batistes equestris, GRONOW, Cat. Fishes, Ed. Gray, 31, 1854, American Seas. 



668. PACHYNATHUS, Swainson. 



Pachynathus, SWAINSON, Class'n Fishes, n, 326, 1839 (triangularis=capistratus) ; notPachy- 

 (jnatha nor Pachygnathus, both these names earlier used for genera of spiders. 



This genus differs from Balistes in the rounded outlines of the vertical 

 fins and in the presence of spines or tubercles on the scales of the poste- 

 rior part of the body. Ventral flap small, somewhat movable, its support- 



1 head and body, most of them oblong, most distinct posteriorly, wanting on breast; other 

 spots distinct on sides of snout ; 3 large black blotches at base of second dorsal fin 

 and 1 at base of first, the latter diffuse, vague dark bands descending from these; dor- 

 sal and anal with pale spots, none on caudal; base of pectoral dusky. St. Martins Island, 

 in the West Indies; known from 1 very young example obtained by Dr. von Rijersma; 

 the above description from this specimen which is probably the young of Balistes forci- 

 patus, from which only the rounded fins distinguish it; this evidently a character ot 

 immaturity. We are indebted to the kindness of Dr. Edward J. Nolan for an opportunity 

 to examine this and others of Professor Cope's types, (moribundus, causing death.) 



