AMPHIBIA NANTES. BALISTES. 
15 
The colour of the back, when fresh from the water, is a dusky glittering yellow, but all below the line, that 
of burnished silver. The first dorsal fin is black and yellow, with a narrow white streak near the edge; the 
second dorsal and anal have a faint yellowish cast; the pectoral and caudal fins are yellow. 
Length of the subject described. 
Inches. Lines. 
From the rostrum to the caudal fin - -- -- 9 5 
the caudal fin - -- -- -- - 2 21- 
breadth from the dorsal to the ventral spines - - 3 5 
REMARKS. 
These fish are caught in vast numbers after the month of May, so as to injure the nets; and being thrown 
away by the fishermen as useless, are often left to putrify in numbers strewed on the beach. 
It is the Balistes Biaculeatus, in Gmelin’s edition of Linnaeus; and described by Gronovius, Mus. 
Ichthyol: No. 115. 
No. XXII. 
Balistes pinna prima dorsali triradiata , radiis longis, spinosis, acutis, ultimo ab alteris remoto; 
radius primus pinna ventralis, osseus, crassus, asper, retusus ; cauda lunata , vana. 
The Balistes with the anterior dorsal fin of three long, spinous, sharp rays, of which the 
last is distant from the others; the first ray of the ventral fin, is a thick, rough bone, 
with a broken rugged point; the tail lunate and variegated. 
Called by the natives Lama Yellakah. 
jD. 3. 27. P. 14. V. 8. A. 25. C. 12. 
The body oblong, broad, compressed, ventricose, narrowing towards the tail, which is small and round. The 
skin leathery, reticulate, rough. 
The head nearly as broad as the body, compressed, obtuse; the vertex a little depressed, the front sub-cari¬ 
nate, declining to the mouth; the mouth on a line with the pectoral fin, small, the lips thick: the jaws not 
extractile, set regularly with teeth, those in the front long. The tongue thick, soft, obtuse, the point sheathed. 
The eyes very high, distant from the rostrum, large, orbicular. The nostrils double, on the edge of a groove 
a little before the eye; both small, but (what is unusual) the posterior nostril smallest. 
The trunk. The back, from the beginning of the first to the second dorsal fin, straight, it then declines to 
the tail; the sides compressed ; the abdomen prominent. The lateral line imperceptible, except a little on the 
tail, where it appears straight and carinate. The anus is nearer the tail than the head. 
The fins. The three rays of the first dorsal fin are rough, long, and sharp, reclining when not erect, into a 
deep groove : the posterior ray is at a considerable distance from the other two; the second dorsal is situated 
on the declivity of the back, exactly opposite to the anal, both being of the same length; the short, roundish, 
pectoral fin, is situated immediately behind the branchial aperture; the ventral two inches further back, its 
first ray, a strong, rough, short bone; the anal rises very near it, and is continued to the tail; the caudal 
is lunate. 
The colour of the head and trunk dusky, sprinkled below the pectoral fin with small, oval, light yellow 
