FOREST, FISH AND GAME COMMISSION. 455 



grows to the length of about 8 inches. The spawning season is June i to lo. 

 From about July i to October 15 the young, from Yz to i inch long, are extremely 

 abundant at Woods Hole, Mass., on the sandy beaches, where 100 are often taken 

 in a seine haul. The fish leaves as soon as cold weather sets in. 



189. Globefish ; Blowfish {SpJieroides tcstiidineiis Linnaeus). 



The Globefish, Blowfish, or Tambor, is a West Indian species. It is very com- 

 mon in the West Indies and the Caribbean Sea, occasionally ascending rivers, and 

 sometimes ranging northward in the Gulf Stream as far as Newport, R. I. 



190. Hairy Blowfish {^SpJiej-oides iricJiocepJiahts Cope). 



The Hairy Blowfish is almost an unknown species, the only specimen in exist- 

 ence being the type of the original description, an example 4 inches long, taken in 

 the Gulf Stream off Newport, R. I, This was described by Cope in the Proceedings, 

 Academy Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, 1870, page 120. It is also described by 

 Jordan and Gilbert, Synopsis of Fishes, North America, 1883, page 862, and by 

 Jordan and Evermann, Bulletin 47, United States National Museum, page 1737. 



Family DIODONTID^E. Porcupine Fishes. 



191. Spiny Boxfish {Cliilomycterus sdicepfii Walbaum). 



The Spiny Boxfish ranges along the coast from Cape Cod to Florida. It is very 

 abundant southward in shallow water, especially from Cape Hatteras to Florida ; it 

 grows to a length of 10 inches. The body is capable of considerable inflation, but 

 not so much as in the Rough Puffers. 



Mitchill calls this fish the Spot-striped Diodon ; he described and figured it in 

 the volume above cited, page 470, plate 6, figure 3. DeKay has it under the name 

 of the Spot-striped Balloon Fish ; he says it is not rare in our waters in summer and 

 is occasionally taken with a hook at the city wharves in July and August. The 

 stomach of a specimen examined by him was filled with fragments of shells. This 

 fish is found occasionally in small numbers from May to October in Gravesend Bay, 

 but no very small ones are seen. It has not been found by the writer in Great 

 South Bay, but a dead specimen was picked up on the beach in the summer of 1901, 

 opposite Clam Pond Cove. 



At Woods Hole, Mass., according to Dr. Smith, it is rare and of irregular 

 occurrence. Some years a few are taken in almost every trap in the vicinity ; then 

 none will be caught for several years. The latter part of September and early 



