622 NEW YORK STATE MUSEIUM 



The name swellfish is derived from its habit of inflating 

 itself by means of air or water. It can be made to inflate itself 

 by scratching its belly. During the process of inflation the fish 

 makes a sucking sound, from which doubtless comes the Chesa- 

 peake bay name of " sucking toad." Mitchill gives the follow- 

 ing account of the inflation: 



The -air is inhaled with a sucking or swilling noise. When 

 received into the cavity it is confined there by a valve in the 

 throat. This valve is so strong and so tight that not a particle 

 of air can escape. The hardness equals that of a football, and 

 the fish will bear to be kicked about without discharging it. I 

 have seen them stamped upon and still retain their charge of 

 air. I have known them to bounce from the surface of a rock, 

 against which they have been thrown, as -turgid as ever. And 

 it is a piece of sport, common enough among fishermen, to burst 

 them between two stones, when the air is let loose with a noise 

 almost equal to the report of a pistol. 



The habit of inflation is a protective one. By means of it the 

 fish can readily escape from the closed hand unless particular 

 effort is made to retain it. When the abdomen is inflated the 

 swellfish often remains on the surface of the water, and is 

 driven by wind and tide till it desires to sink, when the air is 

 suddenly discharged and the abdomen returns to its normal 

 state. 



It often takes a baited hook, notwithstanding the small ^ize 

 of its mouth and its clumsy teeth. 



Subgenus cheilichthys Mtiller 



301 Spheroides testudineus (Linnaeus) 



Glohefish; Blow fish 



Tetrodon testudineus Linnaeus, Syst. Nat. ed. X, 332, 1758; Gunther, Cat. 



Fish. Brit. Mus. VIII, 282, 1870; Jordan & Gilbert, Bull. 16, U. S. 



Nat Mus. 861, 1883. 

 Spheroides testudineus Jordan & Edwards, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. 239, 



1886. 

 8plieroides testudineus Jordan & Evermann, Bull. 47, U. S. Nat. Mus. 



1734, 1898, pi. OGLXV, fig. 646, 646a, 1900. 



Body fusiform, subterete, moderately elongate, its greatest 

 width and depth equal, and two sevenths of total length with- 

 out caudal. Caudal peduncle comparatively stout, its least 

 depth one third length of head, the width not decreasing rapidly 



