diodons

Updated: May 12, 2025

Then, as specimens of other kinds, some ovoides, resembling an egg of a dark brown colour, marked with white bands, and without tails; diodons, real sea-porcupines, furnished with spikes, and capable of swelling in such a way as to look like cushions bristling with darts; hippocampi, common to every ocean; some pegasi with lengthened snouts, which their pectoral fins, being much elongated and formed in the shape of wings, allow, if not to fly, at least to shoot into the air; pigeon spatulae, with tails covered with many rings of shell; macrognathi with long jaws, an excellent fish, nine inches long, and bright with most agreeable colours; pale-coloured calliomores, with rugged heads; and plenty of chaetpdons, with long and tubular muzzles, which kill insects by shooting them, as from an air-gun, with a single drop of water.

Jules Verne - Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea

While swimming it propels itself by rapid lateral movements of the tail, executed awkwardly and with a tortuous motion. It is itself preyed upon by other fish, diodons and albacores; but the shark is merciful to it, as to the pilot-fish, and never interferes with it. Sucking-fish are occasionally seen of a pure white colour associating with the black ones, and also attending upon the shark.

Mayne Reid - The Ocean Waifs: A Story of Adventure on Land and Sea