Horseshoe Leatherjacket, Meuschenia hippocrepis

Plate 125. The Horse-shoe-marked Leather-jacket, Monacanthus hippocrepis (now known as the Horseshoe Leatherjacket, Meuschenia hippocrepis)

The "Leather-jackets," as the species of Monacanthus are popularly called, are numerous in Australia, and are remarkable for the varied character of the small roughnesses which cover the skin outside, obscuring the scales, which are, however, distinctly visible on the inner side; these roughnesses are sometimes pointed spines, or with variously bent or dilapidated tips. The spine of which the first dorsal fin is mainly composed, when raised is fixed in that position immovably by a short, thick, bony piece falling under a notch in its base; the spine cannot be lowered until this so- called triggerbone is depressed.

This beautiful species, with its conspicuous horse-shoe-shaped black mark on the golden-yellow patch on each side, seems to have suggested the fountain (GREEK WORD - SEE ORIGINAL DOCUMENT), near Mount Helicon, sacred to the Muses, produced by a stroke of Pegasus' hoof, to Messrs. Quoy and Gaimard in giving it the specific name. Like most of the other Leather-jackets, it is greatly infested with a large Isopodous crustacean, which burrows in the hinder part of the abdomen.

Not uncommon at the Heads. The specimen figured was got by blasting the Lightning Rock there. It has not been figured of the colors of life before. Like the other Leather-jackets, it is good for food, although reputed poisonous.