96 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Sub-class Teleostei. Batrachoid^. 



distinguishes the curve of its broad mouth, the delicate laciriiated 

 furrows with which its jaws and other parts of its head are orna- 

 mented, its truly beautiful eyes and sometimes the anterior portion 

 of its body. At the slightest alarm, it retreats beneath the stone, 

 but presently reappears. It is lying here perhaps merely as a safe 

 resting place, perhaps on the watch for its prey. 



But during the month of June, July and August, we shall, in 

 many instances be able to discover another purpose , it is apparently 

 guarding its eggs or young. We shall then find on the interior sur- 

 face of the stone the young Toad fish adhering, to the number of 

 several hundred. They will be in difierent stages of developeraent 

 according to the season of our examination. 



We may see the eggs not larger than very small shot. A little 

 later they are increased in size, and the young fish plainly visible 

 through their walls ; a little later still, the young have made their 

 escape but are still attached to the stone. The attachment now is 

 accomplished in a different manner. The yolks not being yet ab- 

 sorbed, occupy a rounded sue protruding by a narrow orifice from 

 the abdomen, and the part of the sac near its outer border, being 

 constricted, leaves external to it a disc, by means of which, acting 

 as a sucker, the young fish adheres so firmly as to occasion diffi- 

 culty in detaching it. They remain thus until they have attained 

 the length of half or three quarters of an inch, or until the yolk 

 sac is entirely absorbed. During this period an adult fish occupies 

 the cavity beneath the stone, and if driven from it speedily returns. 



* * * * During the winter season, in our colder latitudes, the 

 Toad fish in some instances, perhaps, retire into deep water ; it is 

 true, moreover, that many of them become nearly torpid. They 

 are found buried beneath the mud, in the same manner as the eels, 

 and are sometimes taken with the spear thrust down in search of 

 their more valuable neighbors." 



Specific Dei^criplion. The Toad fish has a broad flattened head, 

 as broad as it is long. Its mouth very large ; lower jaw longest ; 

 several rows of conical, blunt pointed teeth on the jaws — thicker 

 in front ; smaller teeth on theintcr-maxillaries and vomer ; palatines 

 have none ; scarcely any tongue ; lips fleshy ; cirrhi about the head, 

 and a row of from five to seven suspended from lower jaws — one 

 or more over each eye ; eyes moderate in size, and guarded by a 

 gelatinous or membranous covering. Numerous mucous pores are 



