The Four-homed Trwik Fish. 407 



THE FOUE-HOENED TEUNK FISH : A NATIVE 

 OF ENGLAND. 



BY JONATHAN COUCH, F.L.S., ETC. 



It was formerly believed that the fishes of this remarkable genus 

 were to be met with only in the far East, or, at least, nowhere 

 except in very warm climates ; and although when voyages had 

 become frequent along the coasts of Africa and India several 

 species became known to the observers of Nature, they were for 

 a long time regarded only as strange freaks of Nature, which 

 might add a new interest to the cabinets of the curious, but of 

 which the habits and distribution over the globe could be 

 only a little studied. There were indeed a few particulars 

 about them in which naturalists who were not travellers were 

 fortunate ; for with only a little care they might be conveyed 

 home without distortion of shape; which was far from being the 

 case generally with numerous fishes of other classes that were 

 imported into England from the same regions — illustrations of 

 which may be seen in the representations of the fishes of 

 Amboina in the work of Euysch, entitled Theatrum omnium 

 Animalium ; and there is even reason to believe that the dis- 

 tortions inflicted on some were made designedly, for the 

 purpose of rendering what was strange and remarkable, still 

 more hideous or curious. 



Jonston published his Natural History of Fishes and 

 Whales in the year 1649, and in it, under the name of Piscis 

 triangularis, he has given a figure of two species (Plate 45) ; 

 but there is no reference to either of them in his text. It is 

 one of these, however, to which I would call the attention of 

 British naturalists, as laying claim to be regarded as a lately- 

 discovered, and, of course, rare visitor to our own shores — the 

 evidence of which will be presently adduced, but concerning 



