THE OLFACTORY REACTIONS OF THE PUFFER OR 
SWELLFISH, SPHEROIDES MACULATUS (BLOCH 
AND SCHNEIDER) 
MANTON COPELAND 
Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine 
The opinion has long been held that the olfactory organs of 
fishes are concerned with a sense of smell, and that many species 
make considerable use of this sense in locating food. Only 
recently, however, has this view been substantiated by physio- 
logical evidence. Parker (’10) was the first to describe reactions 
of fishes which were unquestionably dependent on the stimulation 
of the olfactory apparatus by odorous substances. The species 
studied was the fresh water catfish, Amiurus nebulosus. The 
following year Parker (’11) tested the common killifish, Fundulus 
heteroclitus, and Sheldon (11) the smooth dogfish, Mustelus 
canis, for the sense of smell, and obtained marked response to 
olfactory stimuli from each. A few weeks spent at the Biological 
Laboratory of the United States Bureau of Fisheries at Woods 
Hole, Massachusetts, afforded me opportunity to study the sense 
of smell in the puffer, Spheroides maculatus, with the following 
results. I wish to express my thanks to Dr. F. B. Sumner, Direc- 
tor of the laboratory, for many kindnesses received during my 
stay. 
The olfactory apparatus of the puffer is not of the type most 
commonly seen in the higher fishes. Each nasal chamber occu- 
pies the interior of a papilla which rises about 4mm. above the 
upper surface of the snout, antero-mediad to the eye, and is pro- 
vided with two small circular apertures, one anterior in position, 
and the other situated at the end of a rather poorly marked cylin- 
drical extension directed laterad. Both apertures seem to be con- 
stantly open. 
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