Catalogue of the Fishes of Connecticut. 75 



Order VI. Plectognathi. 

 Family Gymnodontidm. 



*141. Diodon maculo-striatiis, Mitchill, Spot-striped Diodon, 

 Stratford. 



*142. Tetraodon turgidus, Mitchill, Swellfish, Puffer, very- 

 common. 



*143. Tetraodon matheraaticus, Mitchill, Lineated Puffer, 

 Long Island Sound. 



*144. Orthagoriscus mola, Linnasus, Short-headed Sunlish, 

 Stonington. 



Family BalistidcB. 



*145. Monocanthus aurantiacus, Mitchill, Orange Filefish, 

 Stratford and Stonington. 



146. Monocanthus Massachusettensis, Storer, Massachusetts 

 Filefish, Stonington. 



*I47. Monocanthus broccus, Mitchill, Long-finned Filefish, 

 Stonington. 



*141. I have obtained several specimens of this singular fish in this town, and 

 have seen it also at New^ Haven. As Dr. Storer had not named it in his valuable 

 Report, I forwarded him a specimen. The D.fuliginosus of Dr. Dekay, (plate 55, 

 fig. 181,) is unquestionably the young ofthe maculato-striatus, as I have the adult, 

 7 inches in length, with ^^ lanceolate tail," which he says, constitutes the distinct- 

 ive mark of his new species, (fuliginosus.) Mr. Ayres informs me that he has 

 relinquished his specific name of nigrolineatus, as probably only a variety of this 

 species of Mitchill. 



The D. verrucosus and pilosus of Dekay, are both probably in our Sound, but 

 as I have not been so fortunate as to obtain them, their insertion is omitted here. 



*142. The swell-fish, puffer, &c., has throughout our State, (I believe,) iraprop. 

 erly the popular name of toad fish, which ought to be applied only to the Batrachus. 



*143. Upon the authority of Dr. Dekay, the lineated pvffer is found from Rhode 

 Island to Mexico. Dr. Storer has recently obtained it in Massachusetts, as staled 

 in the Boston Jour. Nat. Hist., Vol. IV, page 183. The specific name of laevigatas, 

 first proposed by Linnaeus, and adopted by several other naturalists, appears in 

 most respects preferable to mathematicus. But as there are spines on the abdomen 

 the latter name is considered more appropriate. 



*144. A large individual of the strangely constructed sun-fish, called also short- 

 head fish, was caught in Stonington, in 1841, as Mr. Trumbull informs me. 



*145. The orange filefish I obtained from the Housatonic, in August, 1841 — 

 length 17 inches, width 4 inches, and 1 inch thick — horn upon the head 2 inches 

 in length, but was said to have lost one inch by accident before I received it. Two 

 individuals taken at Stonington, same year, length of one 18 inches, and the other 

 19 inches, horn 4 inches. 



*147. The long finned file-fish is nearly allied to the preceding species. Both are 

 common at New York, and also another species named by Dr. Dekay, Jtf. setifer. 



