SCIENTIFIC SURVEY. 95 



Sub-class Teleostei. BATRACHoiDiE. 



Sub-family Batrachin^, Bona. Genus Batrachus, Linn. 



Gen. Char. Head depressed, broader than body, ventrals jugular with three 

 rays ; the first elongated. First dorsal small, second low and long. Base of the pec- 

 torals elongated. Branchial aperture small, with six rays. Sub-opcrcle as large as 

 the opercle, and both .spinous. No suborbital. Teeth on the jaws, in front of the 

 vomer and palatines. 



Batrachus tan, Guv. 

 Toad fish. 



Whoever, in the summer season, looks carefully among the rocks 

 where the eel grass is abundant in shoal water, will frequently see 

 a " queer " looking fish peeping out from under the stones or among 

 the grass. I have noticed it while standing on the bridge which 

 connects the Navy yard at Kittery with one of the islands. This 

 is the Toad fish, named by Linneus, Batrachus tau. The tau (being 

 the Greek word for the letter T) refers to a fancied resemblance of 

 the ridges of bone on the top of the skull of this fish when dried. 

 It is not used for food nor put to any economical use, but it is, nev- 

 ertheless, interesting to the naturalist on account of its habits and 

 parental affection it manifests for its young. 



Dr. Storer, to whom we are all greatly indebted for much valua- 

 ble information in regard to the fishes on the coast of Massachu- 

 setts and Maine, has attentively studied the habits and characteris- 

 tics of this fish, and we copy the following remarks in full from the 

 memoirs of the American Academy. 



" The particular situations which it chooses vary with the nature 

 of the coast. Thus along our southern shore it is found in the shal- 

 low bays. The sandy or muddy bottoms of these are overgrown 

 with eel grass (Zostera marina) under cover of which it lives in se- 

 curity, and finds abundant sources of food. When the coast, on 

 the contrary, is more or less rocky, we meet with it chiefly under 

 the stones. Examining the places where the water is but a few 

 inches deep at low tide, we see that under many of the stones or 

 smaller rocks the sand has been removed, leaving a shallow cavity, 

 perhaps a foot in width, and extending back beneath the stone. If 

 we approach it cautiously, we shall probably distinguish the head 

 of a Toad fish, very much in the position of that of a dog as he lies 

 looking out of his kennel. The fish is at rest, and might be over- 

 looked by a careless observer. A close attention, however, readily 



