462 



ZOOLOGY. 



ventral fins are usually absent. They are inhabitants of warm 

 waters. The trunk-fish or box-fish, Lactophrys trigomis 

 Poey, is a West Indian fish ; one specimen has appeared at 

 [Holmes' Hole, Mass. The porcupine - fish {CMUchtht/s 

 ■turgidus Gill) and smooth puffer {Tetrodon Icevigatus Gill) 

 and the spring box-fish {Chilomycterus geometricus Kaup) 



Fig. 425.— Sun-fish, Mola rotunda, one eighteenth natural size.— After Pntnam. 



range from Cape Cod to Florida. The sun-fish {Mola ro- 

 tunda Cuvier, Fig. 435) is, like the others of the order, a 

 surf ace - swimmer. It is sometimes a metre or more in 

 length, weighing five hundred pounds or more. Allied 

 forms are Orthagoriscus ohlongus (Fig. 436) and the globe- 



