HA1RY URCHIN-FISH. Diodon pittsus. 



URCHIN-FISH. Diodon hystrix. 



radiant with their vivid tintings. To all appearance they are vegetable feeders, as nothing 

 but crushed seaweed has been found in their stomachs. 



In the members of the family Gymnodontes, or Naked-toothed fishes, the jaws project 

 from the mouth, and are covered with a kind of ivory or bony substance, composed of very 

 little teeth fused together. 



The URCHIN-FISH, or SEA HEDGEHOG, is a good example of the genus Diodon, or Two- 

 toothed fishes ; so called because their jaws are not divided, and only exhibit one piece of 

 bony substance above and another below, looking as if the creature only possessed two 

 large teeth. 



This curious fish is remarkable for the tremendous array of spiny points which it bears 

 on its skin, and for the power of inflating its body into a globular form, and thus causing 

 the spines to project in every direction, like the quills of an irritated porcupine or a hedge- 

 hog that has coiled itself into a ball. From this custom of inflating its prickly body it is 

 sometimes termed the Prickly Globe-fish. 



Mr. Bennett gives a curious account of the Diodon, from which the following remarks 

 are extracted : " This fish lived for several hours after it had been removed from the water, 

 and, as often as it was handled, it inflated its body, erected its spines, gnashed its teeth, and 

 produced sounds by an emission of air through its mouth. It inflated its body by pumping 

 air into the gullet by frequent gulps or gasps. The contents of the stomach were fragments 

 of the shells of Hylcea tridentata, and a sucking-fish, the head of which was detached from 

 the body, and much mutilated. The sailor who brought me the specimen, reported that 

 it had also thrown up a sucking-fish at the time it was captured. 

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