Length more than twice the depth of the body: skin smooth.

O. truncatus, Flem. Brit. An. p. 175. Jen. Cat. of Brit. Vert. An. 31. sp. 181. Tetrodon truncatus, Gmel. Linn. torn. i. part iii. p. 1448. Don. Brit. Fish. vol. ii. pl. 41. Cephalus oblongus, Shaw, Gen. Zool. vol. v. part ii. p. 439. pl. 176. Turt. Brit. Faun. p. 116. Sun-Fish from Mount's Bay, Borl. Cornw. p. 268. pl. 26. f. 7. Oblong Diodon, Penn. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 129. pl. 19. Oblong Tetrodon, Id. (Edit. 1812). vol. iii. p. 170. pl. 22.

Description

{Form). Represented by authors as closely resembling the last species, excepting in its more oblong and elongated shape, the entire length being more than twice (according to Turton, nearly three times) the depth of the body: skin smooth: branchial aperture lunulate. The number of fin-rays, according to Donovan, stands thus:

D. 12; A. 15; C 17; P. 14.

{Colours). "Back dusky, with some variegations; abdomen silvery; between the eyes and the pectoral fins a few dusky streaks pointing downwards." Shaw.

Apparently more rare in the British seas than the last species. First noticed by Borlase, who has figured a specimen from Mount's Bay in Cornwall. The same author speaks of another taken at Plymouth in 1734, which weighed five hundred pounds. Since then other individuals have occasionally been met with. In the stomach of one, obtained by Donovan from the Bristol Channel, there were found fragments of testaceous and crustaceous animals. Obs. Both this and the 0. Mola have a bright glistening appearance when taken fresh out of the water, to which circumstance is to be attributed their English name of Sun-Fish. At night they are said to be phosphorescent.

* The above fin-ray formula is from Bloch.