Notice of the Etuet," a species of T etraodoii, 269 
oil the belly, but, instead, numerous small spines on the 
shoulder or back. The large teeth also, instead of project- 
ing from the mouth, according to the character and name of 
the family Gymnodontes, in which its congeners have been 
placed, are apparently covered by its thick lips, so that the 
fish would appear, in this respect, to occupy a somewhat 
intermediate position between the Sclerodermi and the Gym- 
nodontes. I shall therefore give a more detailed description 
of this specimen of Tetraodon. 
It is a short and thick fish, with a rounded back ; its 
greatest depth being a little behind the insertion of the 
pectoral fins, from which it tapers rapidly forward to its 
rather blunt snout or mouth ; and from the same part of 
greatest depth, it tapers backwards more gradually towards 
the caudal fin. It measures rather more than 10 inches in 
length from the point of the snout, along the back, to the 
extremity of the tail, by 2J inches in breadth at the base of 
the pectoral fins ; and it is 3 inches in its greatest depth, a 
little behind the pectoral fius, where it measures 8 inches in 
circumference. The fish is of a brown colour above, ap- 
parently mottled with black (the specimen being preserved 
in spirits, the colours are uncertain), and is of a pale or 
white colour below the insertion of the pectoral fins ; at the 
junction of these colours, along its sides, it is ornamented 
by a longitudinal series of bright scarlet spots, each more 
or less surrounded with black, which begins immediately 
behind the pectoral fin, and terminates at the root of the 
tail. In this fish there are six or seven of these spots on 
the one side, and seven or eight on the other. 
The head measures 2J inches in length from point of 
snout to branchial opening in front of pectoral fins, and 
about If inch in breadth behind the rather prominent red- 
coloured eyes, from which part it tapers rapidly forwards to 
its blunt or rounded snout ; the thick lips of its somewhat 
crescentic-like mouth entirely cover and conceal the four 
large teeth, the upper pair of which project considerably 
over those of the lower jaw. The eyes are large and full, 
measuring nearly half an inch in greatest lengtli in an 
oblique direction, and are placed at tlie distance of an incli 
