CEPHALUS. SUN-FISH. 



Generic Character. 



Maxillce ossese. 



Corpus ovatum, postice 



truncatum, caput piscis 



simulans. 



Jaws bony. 



Body terminating abruptly, 

 so as to resemble the 

 head of a fish. 



SHORT SUN-FISH. 



Cephalus Brevis. corpore suhorbiculato. 

 Sun-Fish with suborbicular body. 



Tetrodon Mola. T. Icevis c.ompressuSy cauda truncata, pinna 



brevissima dorsali analique annexa. Lin, Syst, Nat, 

 Mola. Sun-Fish. Will. ichtJi. p, 151, 

 Short Diodon. Penn, Brit. Zool. 

 Diodon Mola. Block, t. 128. 



The present genus is very strikingly distin- 

 guished by its unusual shape : the species compos- 

 ing it have hitherto been united with those of the 

 genera of Diodon and Tetrodon. This led to great 

 confusion, on account of an error in the Systema 

 Naturae, in which the Short Sun-Fish was referred 

 to the genus Tetrodon instead of Diodon, in which 

 latter, according to the Linnaean principles of 

 arrangement, it should have been placed. Another 

 species, described by Dr. Pallas, was also introduced 

 into the Gmelinian edition of the Systema Naturae 

 under the name Diodon Mola ; so that the restor- 



