FISHES—PHENOMENAL AND ECONOMICAL. 191 
formidable teeth of a large specimen being liable to lead to a loss of flesh, blood, 
and—with any but evenly-balanced minds—serenity of language and temper. 
One other interesting member of the order of the Plectognathi is included 
in Chromo-Plate VII. This is the Tasmanian Porcupine-fish, or prickly Globe-fish, 
as it is sometimes called, Chilomycterus jaculiferus, Fig. D. It very nearly resembles 
the common Poreupine-fish, Diodon maculata, of the tropical Australian coast-line 
but possesses more slender spines and other obscure points of distinction. When 
brought to the surface of the water it shares with the familiar tropical species the 
property of inflating itself with air into an almost perfect sphere, around which the 
spines stand rigidly erect. A fish thus floating and inflated was always observed 
to occupy a considerable interval, it might be half-an-hour, in getting rid of the 
injected air and thereby recovering the capacity to descend again into the profun- 
dities of its native element. 
The Toad-fishes, belonging to the genus Tetrodon, which are very abundantly 
represented in Australian waters, possess the same power of inflating their bodies, 
and are on this account pre-eminently distinguished in Australia by the title of Blow- 
fishes. Several of the smaller varieties, and notably a handsome golden-green, black 
spotted form, Zetrodon Hamilton, are plentiful on the Tasmanian coast, but the larger 
species of a foot or more in length are chiefly limited to the tropics. It is worthy of 
remark that the members of this genus are notoriously poisonous, and that several 
fatalities have occurred in both Tasmania and on the Australian mainland through the 
injudicious participation in a meal of Toad-fish. A portrait of the above-named 
common and highly poisonous Tasmanian species is annexed. 
TASMANIAN TOAD-FISH, Tetrodon Hamiltoni, TWO-THIRDS NATURAL SIZE. 
