348 GYMNODONTIJi^. 



Cornish coast, and mentions another obtained in the Euro- 

 pean seas. Still more recently a specimen was taken in 

 Mount's Bay, a drawing of which was sent to the Zoological 

 Society by Dr. Boase, and a notice of its occurrence ap- 

 peared in the Proceedings for October 1833, as referred to. 



Pennant called his fish leevigatus in the edition of his 

 work published in 1776, and his editor adopted that of 

 lagocephalus in the edition of 1812, referring to Linnseus 

 and Bloch ; but the figure of the two specimens by Pennant 

 and Mr. Donovan, and the drawing of the third sent to the 

 Zoological Society by Dr. Boase, agree more closely with 

 the figure of the Globe-fish in Grew's Rarities, tab. 7, and 

 the Orbis lagocephalus of Willughby, plate I. 2, which ap- 

 pear to be intended to represent the same fish, and being 

 without spots or stripes, is, I think, distinct from the lagoce- 

 phalus of Linnseus and Bloch, the spots of which are referred 

 to in the description of the one, and both spots and stripes 

 shown in the coloured figure of the other. 



Mr. Donovan, when calling this fish stellatus, appears not 

 to have been aware that this term had been previously appro- 

 priated to an Indian species with black spots ; and still con- 

 sidering this fish provisionally as a new species, I propose for 

 it now the name of our highly-esteemed British zoologist, by 

 whom, as far as I am aware, it was first made known. 



" The species of this genus are remarkable for being pro- 

 vided with the means of suddenly assuming a globular form 

 by swallowing air, which, passing into the crop or first sto- 

 mach, blows up the whole animal like a balloon. The ab- 

 dominal region being thus rendered the lightest, the body 

 turns over, the stomach being the uppermost part, and the 

 fish floats upon its back, without having the power of direct- 

 ing itself during this state of forced distension. But it is 

 while thus bloated and passive, at the mercy of the waves. 



