THE TRUNK FISHES. 171 



Swell Fishes, which have just been described, great numbers of them are preserved for sale in 

 curiosity shops. 



The Trunk Fishes appear to have been objects of curiosity in the early days of American 

 exploration, and were evidently among the choicest treasures of the primitive museums of the 

 seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Their strange shape naturally attracted the attention of 

 travelers, while the ease with which their shells could be preserved then, as now, made them 

 valuable to the curiosity hunters. 



No group of tropical fishes is so thoroughly worked out in the writings of the fathers of 

 Natural History as this one. Over two hundred years ago every species of Trunk Fish now taken 

 from the Atlantic was known to and described by the naturalists of Northern Europe, and it is a 

 well-deserved tribute to their discrimination as zoologists to say that none of the many efforts, which 

 have since been made to subdivide their species, have been at all successful. 



Artedi, in his notes upon the different forms of Ostracion, mentions the various collections iu 

 which he observed specimens. "The Nagg's Head," "White Bear," and the "Green Dragon iu 

 Stepney," to which he very often alludes, seeto to have been London taverns where curiosities were 

 kept. He also speaks of seeing them in the museum of Hans Sloane, which was the nucleus of 

 the British Museum; also in the collections of D. Seba, in Amsterdam, of Mr. Lillja, in London, 

 of Mr. (Don) Saltcros, in Ghelsey, and of seeing various specimens at Stratford, and "in Spring 

 Garden." No other kinds of fishes appear to have been preserved except " the monk- or Angel-fish 

 Anglis, alias MermaM-fish,^^ probably a species of Squatma, which he saw in London at the Nagg's 

 Head and in the town of Chelsea. The art of taxidermy was evidently not thoroughly established 

 in 1738. 



Of Ostracion bicaudalis he remarks, " Vidi Londini, in the White Bear," and " Apud D™ Sebam 

 vidi." Ostracion trigonus he saw " Apud Sir Hans Sloane et in Nagg's Head"; Ostracion triqueter 

 and 0. quadricornis, "Londini in the Nagg's Head et apud Mr. LUlia." 



These specimens were all said to have come from India. 



In the West Indies and in Florida the Trunk Fishes are sometimes baked in their own shells, 

 and, when cooked in this manner, are considered by many persons to be great delicacies. 



There are instances on record of serious cases of poisoning which have resulted from eating 

 them. These cases occurred in tropical countries, where the flesh of fish often becomes delete- 

 rious after a few hours' keeping. 



50. THE FILE-FISH FAMILY— BALISTID^. 



File Fishes, Balistidm, are found everywhere in tropical and sub-tropical seas. It is supposed 

 that they breed in mid-ocean. There are numerous species in this family, of which nine or ten 

 occur along our Atlantic coast. They belong in warm seas, and only four species are found as far 

 north as New England. With their strong teeth they are able to break the shells of moUusks, 

 upon which they feed. They are known to be very injurious to the pearl fisheries in regions where 

 such fisheries exist. The best known species on our coast is the Orange File Fish, Alutera Schoepfii, 

 also called "Barnacle-eater" and "Fool Fish," which is rather common in Southern New England 

 and in the Gulf of Mexico. 



This species is conspicuous on account of its bright skin, sometimes of an orange and some- 

 times of a tawny hue. It attains the length of eighteen to twenty inches, and feeds upon many 

 species of soft marine animals. 



There are one or two small species which are of no importance except to the possessors of 

 aquarium tanks, with whom they are great favorites. 



