AKGLER FISHES — GILL. 



609 



a male. Consequently no observations have been made on the rela- 

 tive behavior of the sexes or on the mode of fertilization of the eggs. 

 All this has j^et to be observed. 



Fig. 45. — The Frogfish or Marbled Angler {Pterophnjiw liistrio). After Smitt. 



The Pterophryne naturally would not be generally looked upon as 

 an edible fish and, according to Schlegel, even the piscivorous Jap- 

 anese consider the flesh of the species to be poisonous. As such it is 

 ranked by Pellegrin in Les Poissons Veneneux. 



PART III. 



THE SO-CALLED " NEST " OF THE FROG FISH. 



A summary of all that has been positively made known of the 

 habit of the frog fish has now been given, but a remarkable episode 

 in its history deserves to be here recorded. For just about a genera- 

 tion (thirty-three years) that fish was signalized as a nest maker, the 

 fabricator of a subglobular nest constructed from a frond of the sar- 

 gasso weed, in the midst of which it is most abundant. This supposed 

 function was the result of a misidentification of eggs found in connec- 

 tion with masses of sargassum frequently to be met with in or about 

 the winter months in subtropical waters. 



The first to notice the egg masses was Prof. Louis Agassiz, who ob- 

 tained one during a voyage in the coast survey vessel Hassler near the 



