THE URCHIN-FISH. 



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the ocean 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 pro- 

 ject 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-tooth 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. 



HAIRY URCHIN-FISH. -Dtodon pllosus. 



URCHlN-FISH.-DAxfon hyttrlx. 



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 hedgehog that has coiled itself into a ball. From this custom of inflat- 

 ing 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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