170 TELEOSTEI: PLECTOGNATHI. — XXII. 



■which the stomach may be greatly inflated and the fish float belly 

 upward out of reach of its pursuers. 



o. Back not carinated, skin without scutes ; nostril on eacli side with two 

 openings. 

 i. D. and A. falcate, of 12 to 15 rays; C. lunate; vertebrse 20; nostrils ses- 

 sile; mucous tubes on head very conspicuous. Lagocephalds, 243. 

 bb. D. and A. short, rounded, of 6 to 8 rays; C. rounded; vertebriB 18; 

 nostrils at tip of a hollow papilla ; mucous tubes not conspicuous. 



Oebidus, 2i4. 



243 LAGOCEFHAIiUS Swainson. (^Xaymf, hare ; Ke<pa\rj, 

 head.) 



481. L. Isevigatus (L.). Kabbit Fish. Smooth Puffer. 

 Tambor. Olive green ; silver-white below; belly with large 3-rooted 

 spines ; skin elsewhere smooth. Head 3 J ; depth 4-^. D. 14. A. 12 

 L. 2 feet or more. Cape Cod to Brazil. (Lat., made smooth.) 



244, ORBIDUS Rafinesque. (Lat., orbis, a sphere.) 



482. O. maculatus (Bloch & Schneider). Commox Ptjffer. 

 Swell-fish. Swell-toad. Sides of head and body always prickly, 

 as is back from upper hp to D. ; prickles all similar, small, close-set, 

 3-rooted, never obsolete. Dark ohve above, marbled and dotted 

 with black ; black blotches on side forming short cross-bars .; C. 

 nearly plain. Head 2f; depth 3. D. 7. A. 6. C. 7. L. 12. Cape 

 Cod to S. C, very common. (^Tetraodon turgidus Mitchill.) 



Family XCH. DIODONITID^. (The Porcupine-fishes.) 



Fishes similar to the Tetraodontidce, but having the teeth of each 

 jaw grown into one; body with rooted spines; stomach less ex- 

 tensively inflatable than in the Tetraodontidce. Genera 3 ; species 

 about 10, in warm seas, (his, two; obaiu, tooth.) 



a. Spines robust, all fixed, and 3-rooted (some of them rarely 4-rooted) ; nasal 

 tube simple witli two lateral openings. . . Chilomyctekus, 246. 



245. CHILOMYCTEKUS (Bibron) Kaup. Ot«Aoj, lip ; 



fivKTqp, nostril.) 



483. C. schoepfi (Walbaum). Burr-fish. Swell-toad. A 

 ridge above eye. Greenish, with series of parallel blackish stripes 

 covering most of the body above ; an oceUated black spot above P. ; 

 a larger one behind it ; one at base of D. ; a smaller one below it ; 

 fins unspotted. Head 2|; depth 3. D. 12. A. 10. L. 6. Cape 

 Cod to Texas; very abundant S. (C geometricus Bloch & Schnei- 

 der.) (Farther S. occurs Diodon hystrix L., larger, with lono-er 

 spines, of which some are 2-rooted and movable.) (To Johann 

 David Schopf, a Hessian surgeon in the Revolutionary War.) 



