﻿354 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS [VOL. 47 



Zool., (5,) xx, 91-103). He thought that if we pronounce in a 

 subdued voice the diphthongs ou! vous! ous! as short consonant 

 sounds, we may produce sounds which have a great analogy with 

 the most common cries of the Sculpins. Their utterances are so 

 instantaneous that we cannot observe the pitch. They are emitted 

 at irregular intervals and with considerable irregularity in intensity 

 and variations of timbre; their resemblance to the cries of several 

 toad-like Batrachians is remarkable and they might easily be mis- 

 taken for such. On account of this similarity Dufosse designated 

 their sounds as cries (cris) to distinguish them from those of other 

 fishes. 



The sounds are produced in water as well as in the open air and 

 are the results of the vibratory contraction of some of the muscles 

 round the mouth of the fish; especially those of the floor of the 

 mouth and those connected with the branchial and hyoid apparatus. 

 These muscles, Dufosse urges, are subject to the will of the fish 

 and the sounds they cause are consequently voluntary. Further- 

 more, the buccal and respiratory cavities, when dilated, become ca- 

 pable of re-enforcing all the sonorous vibrations, like a resonant 

 cavity on a musical instrument. The branchiostegal membrane be- 

 comes puffed out and gives the fish the appearance familiar to salt- 

 water anglers and watermen. 



V 

 The relations of the sexes to each other, and the armature of the 

 inside surfaces of the pectorals and ventrals of the males, had long 

 ago led some naturalists to infer that perhaps the males had connec- 

 tion with the females, but most had discredited the suggestion. Mc- 

 intosh and Masterman indeed, in 1897, had urged " that it is evident 

 that " the eggs " are not fertilized before deposition." Nevertheless, 

 a year later, (in 1898,) Nordquist claimed that the eggs are so fer- 

 tilized. The importance and interest of the alleged discovery entitles 

 him to tell the story in his own way. His short article was published 

 in the Meddelandcn of the Societas pro Fauna et Flora Fennica 

 ( pt. 26, 1899-1900, pp. 31-32). It is here translated: 



"When, on the 27th of last November [1898], I cut open some Sea- 

 Scorpions from the neighborhood of Helsingfors for the purpose of deter- 

 mining the spawning time of this species, I found some eggs in the ovary 

 of one of the individuals examined, near the genital aperture, which were 

 considerably bigger than the rest and of a paler color. On looking more 

 closely at one of the eggs, I found that it contained a rather far advanced 

 embryo with two distinct pigmented eyes. On closer examination of the 

 ovary, I could discover, here and there, several similar eggs at an advanced 



