THE OSTRACION-,! X47 



Gekus XIII OJracion *. 



CJstRAcroK is the generic name adopted by Linnceus for 

 nine different kinds of anomalous fifti which he has enu- 

 merated, all inhabitants of warm climates, and all agrees 

 ing in having tlie body covered with a bony coat of mail f. 

 Some of them want horns ; others hnve two, and fome 

 four : They are of various fliapes and lizes, and 

 from their appearance, hardly feem entitled to rank with 

 this clafs of the animal kingdom. 



The fpecies here defcribcd was fent from the Eajl InH' 

 dies, and is about fifteen inches long, and four deep : The 

 forehead appears flat, and even concave, on account of two 

 laige eye-brows that preje61: over it; the eyes are about 

 an inch in diameter ; below them are the two fmall fora- 

 mina of the noftrils ; the mouth is hardly an inch in width^ 

 and furniihed with very minute teeth. The body is of a 

 quadrangular fliape, and moved by five fins ; of thefe, the 

 two branchial are fquare, being two inches broad by two 

 long : Refembling thefe, are other two fituated near 

 the tail, the one above and the other below ; the tail fin 

 is three inches in length, by three and a half in breadth. 

 The whole body is covered with a cruftaceous fubftance, 

 refembling that of the pale blooded fillies of that order. 

 This cruft is llrengthened and ornamented by a great 

 T a number 



• Oftracion prior Aldfovandi. 

 f Syftema Naturx, genus 136 < 



