168 REPORT OF COMMISSIONERS OF INLAND FISHERIES. 



1903 

 1905 

 1908 



Fulton, Report, Fishery Board, Scotland, 21, 186. 

 Ehrenbaum, Nordisches Plankton, 4, 46. 

 Gill, Report Smithson. Inst., 565. 



ANTENNARIID^. The Frog-Fishes. 

 198. Pterophryne histrio (Linnseus). Marhled Angler; Sargassum Finh. 



Geog. Dist.: Tropical parts of the Atlantic, north to Cape Cod in floating 

 masses of gulf-weed. A specimen has been taken in Norway from 

 sea-weed floating in the Gulf Stream. A number of specimens have 

 been taken at different times at Woods Hole and Nantucket Shoals. 



Season in R. I.: Two specimens were taken in 1904 at the mouth of the 

 Sakonnet River, one on September 6, the other about a week later. 



Habitat: Surface of tropical waters, chiefly under floating masses of 

 gulf- weed. 



Reproduction: The spawning season extends from July to October. 

 Several specimens in an aquarium at Woods Hole spawned in August. 

 The eggs were in long bands like those of the goosefish. These bands 

 are four or five feet long and two to four inches wide. The eggs are 

 1-25 inch in diameter without any oil globule. (Ehrenbaum, Nor- 

 disches Plankton, 10, 1909, 393; GiU and Gudger, Science, XXII, 

 1905; Gill, Smithsonian Report, 1908, 565. 



This is one of the most interesting of our visitors from southern waters. 

 It is usually found swimming under the bits of gulfweed which some- 

 times drift in from the Gulf Stream in summer and autumn during long 

 east and southeast blows. This fish furnishes an interesting example 

 of protective resemblance. The mottling of its body and the numerous 

 filamentous appendages attached to its skin gives it such a resemblance 

 to the gulfweed in which it floats that it must be very effectively hidden 

 from its enemies. With regard to the habits of this species (Smith, 

 1898), speaking of some specimens in an aquarium at Wood's Hole, 

 says: "While clumsy in their movements they were adepts at ap- 

 proaching and capturing other fishes. They are quite cannibalistic 

 and one 6 inches long swallowed another 4 inches long, and they 

 frequently bit off the fleshy dermal appendages of their fellows." 



As far as is known the two specimens above referred to are the only mem- 

 bers of this species ever taken in Rhode Island waters. Their presence 

 here at that particular time is explained by the following data which 

 has been kindly furnished by Mr. W. L. Day, Observer, Weather 

 Bureau, Block Island. The direction of the wind during the two weeks 



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