462 



ZOOLOGY. 



ventral fins are usually absent. They are inhabitants of warm 

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

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

 Holmes' Hole, Mass. The porcupine - fish {Chilichthys: 

 turgidus GiU) and smooth puffer {Tetrodon Icevigatus Gill) 

 and the spring box-fish {Chilomycterus geornetricus Kaup) 



Mil 



till 



f 



Fig. 426.— San-fish, M<Aa rotunda, one eighteentli natural size.— After Putnam. 



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

 tunda Cuvier, Fig. 425) is, hke the othei-s of the order, a 

 surface -swimmer. It is sometimes a metre or more in 

 length, weighing five hundred pounds or more. Allied 

 forms are Orthagoriscus oblongus (Fig. 426) and the globe- 



