ANGLEE FISHES GILL. 



589 



ward. This is well illustrated by a front view of the fish. The 

 tentacle is retractile into a pit under the fronto-rostral process or 

 horn. 



The singular elongation and geniculation of the so-called arms 

 (pseudobrachia) and pectorals and the position and character of 

 the ventrals enable the fishes to progress, as quadrupeds do, by 

 hopping; at least so it has been claimed. Swainson (1838) pub- 

 lished an illustration of a Malthe^ purporting to be " accurately 

 drawn from a specimen [he had] secured on the Brazilian coasts," 

 in such an attitude. The relative functions of the members are 

 curiously reversed, for the homologues of the fore limbs are in these 

 fishes hind limbs and saltatory, while the homologues of the hind 

 limbs are advanced to an anterior position. The present writer has 

 had no opportunity of late years to observe living fishes. Indeed, 

 although not rare, almost nothing is known of their habits. 



The most common of the species is Ogcoeephalus or Malthe ves- 

 'pe7'til(o. Sea bat and Toadfish, or simply toad, are vernacular equiv- 

 alents. Mr. Barton A, Bean has kindly communicated to me some 

 observations respect- 

 ing its occurrence 

 and habits: 



In regard to the oc- 

 currence and move- 

 ments of Malthe I can 

 only say that these 

 fishes are common 

 around the docks, in 

 shallow water, of Key 



West Harbor, Florida. In 1901 (January and the first week of February) I 

 spent three weeks in Key West preserving fishes in formalin for exhibit at the 

 Pan-American Exposition held at Buffalo, New York. My outfit for the work 

 was kept in a small shed at the end of a pier around which, at low-water stage 

 of tide, the sea was shallow; the water was clear and the bottom plainly seen. 

 "Toads" were common (the people at Key West always called them "just 

 toads") and were often observed resting on the bottom or swimming through 

 the water, rather I'apidly I thought for so sluggish-looking fish. Owing to the 

 similarity of their color to that of the bottom of the harbor, they were not easy 

 to see at times, and when frightened, in their hurry to move away, they would 

 stir up the water and bottom so that it was impossible to see them again until 

 they passed into clear water and had come to rest some distance off. The fish 

 would rest on its pectorals, but I do not recall seeing one move as if walking; 

 neither could I tell how much the pectorals were used in swimming. 



The distribution of Malthe would make an interesting study. On the Orian 

 we found them between the Florida Keys, 60 miles or so southwest of Miami 

 (in December), and from that southwai'd you find them more or less common 

 according to bottom. Among the Iveys north of Key West we seined them in 

 water with hard bottom, but on which there is considerable sediment, broken 

 coral, " rotten sponges," rocks, etc. Around Key West Harbor the fish, as I 

 have already stated, was fairly common. Elsewhere it was not so well known. 

 On our last fall trip I was introduced to a fisherman at New Smyrna, Florida, 



Malthid at attention. After Swainson. 



