24 



current of water through the gills, thus aiding respiration, which would 

 otherwise be difficult on account of the narrowness and inflexibility of 

 the branchial apertures. 



When taken from the water, one of these fishes will live for two or 

 three hours, all the time solemnly fanning its gills, and when restored to 

 its native element seems none the worse for its experiences, except that, 

 on account of the air absorbed, it cannot at once sink to the bottom. 

 The Cuckold is not valued for food, though I am unable to learn that its 

 use is ever followed by fatal results such as attend it in some of the West 

 Indies.* 



The local name is not applicable, .and has probably been transferred 

 from some other fish, as, for instance, the following species, which is 

 known in Jamaica as "the cuckold." 



Color. — Dark brown, thickly studded with circular spots of yellowish- 

 white, each about two lines in diameter. The epidermis is often 

 abraded, leaving the shell uniform tawny-white. 



OSTRACIUM QUADRICORNE, Linne. 



Cow-fish. 



Piscis triangularis comutus Clusii, WlLLUGHBY, Hist. Pise. 1686, xiv, tab. J. 



Ostracion triangularis 2 aculeis &c, ARTEDr, Syu. Pise. 1738, 85, No. 9. 



Ostracion quadricornis, Linne, Syst. Nat. ed. 10, 1, 1758, 331 ; ed. 12, 1, 1766, 403.— Bloch, 

 Icbth iv, 1787, 113, taf. exxxir.— Gmelin, Liuu6, Syst. Nat. 1, 1788, 1442.— 

 Schneider, Bloch, Syst. Ichtb. 1801, 499.— Lacepede, Hist. Nat.Poiss. 1, 1798, 

 442, 468.— Shaw, Gen. Zool. v, 1804, 424.— Kaup, Wiegraann's Arcb. Naturg..xxi, 

 1855, 218.— Hollard, Ann. Sci. Nat. 1857, 148. — Bleeker, Poiss. Guinea, 1863, 

 20.— Gunther, Cat. Fisb. Brit. Mus. viii, 18* 0,258. 



Ostracion quadricorne, Poey, Mem. ii, 1861, 362 ; Rep. Fis.-Nat. Cuba, ii, 1868, 439 ; 



Ostracion (Acantliostracion) quadricornis, Bleeker, Atl. Icbtb. 1865, 32. 



Ostracium quadricorne, Cope, Trans. Am. Phil. Soc. 1870, 474. 



La'tophrys quadricornis, SWAINSOX, Hist. Nat. Fish. & Eept. ii, 1839, 324. 



Chopin, PaRRA, Desc. Dif. Piez. Hist. Nat. Cuba, 1787, 31, lam. xvii. 



Ostracion Lister, Lacepede, op. cit. 468, pi. xxiii, f. 2. 



Ostracion sexeornutus, Mitchill, Amer. Mouth. Mag. ii, 1818, 328. 



Lactophrys sexeornutus, Storer, Syn. Fisb. N. Am. 1846, 246. 



Ostracion cornutus, Mull. & Trosch. in Scbomburgk, Hist. Barbados, 1848, 677 (not 

 Linne or Bloch). 



Ostracion maculatus, Hollard, op. cit. 149. 



Common ; its habits much like those of Ostracium triquctntm. Its 

 range is much wider, including Saint Helena, Guinea, the Cape of 



* Schomburgk, History of Barbados, p. 677. 



