252 NATURAL HISTORY OF AQUATIC ANIMALS. 



closely to that of the bottom upon which they are resting, and, like many other muddy-water 

 species, they have the power of changing their color to lighter or darker shades when exposed to 

 the light in shallow vessels with dark or light-colored bottom. They are very voracious, feeding 

 upon small fishes of all kinds, especially upon anchovies and sand-smelt, and upon shells, crabs, 

 shrimps, and marine worms. "It secures its food rather by strategy and stealth than by swiftness 

 of motion," writes Mr. Stearns, "hiding under or behind stones, rocks, or weeds, or stealing from 

 one cover to another it watches its victim until the latter is near by, when it darts forth with a 

 quickness quite astonishing, considering its usual sluggishness, and back again to its hiding 

 place, having one or more fish in its stomach and on the alert for others." 



On the south coast of New England it is found chiefly in the shallow bays. "The sandy or 

 muddy bottom of these," writes Storer, "is overgrown with eel-grass, under cover of which it lives 

 in secui ity and finds abundant sources of food. Where the coast, on the contrary, is more or less 

 rocky, we meet with it chiefly under stones. Examining the places where the water is but a few 

 inches in depth at low tide, ve see that under many of the stones and smaller rocks the sand on 

 one side has been removed, leaving a shallow cavity perhaps a foot in width and extending back 

 beneath the stone. If we approach this cautiously we shall probably distinguish the head of a 

 Toad-fish very much in the position of that of a dog as he lies looking out of his kennel. The fish 

 is at rest, and might be overlooked by a careless observer; a closer attention, however, readily dis- 

 tinguishes the curve of its broad mouth and delicately laciniated tentacles with which its jaws 

 and other parts of its head are ornamented. Its eyes, and sometimes the anterior portion of its 

 body, are truly beautiful. At the slightest alarm it retreats beneath the stone, but presently reap- 

 pears; it is lying here merely as in a safe resting-place, perhaps on the watch for its prey. But 

 during the months of June, July, and August we shall in many instances be able to discover 

 another purpose; it is apparently guarding its eggs or young; we shall then find on the interior 

 surface of the stone the young Toad-fish adhering, to the number of several hundreds. They will 

 be in different stages of development, according to the season of our examination. We may see 

 the eggs not larger than very small shot ; a little later they are increased in size, the young fish 

 plainly visible through their walls; a little later still the young have made their escape, but are 

 still attached to the stone. The attachment now, however, is accomplished in a different manner; 

 the yolk not being yet absorbed, occupies a rounded sac protruding by a narrow orifice from the 

 abutment, and the part of this sac near its outer border being constricted leaves, externally to it, 

 a disc, by means of which, acting as a sucker, the young fish adheres so firmly as to occasion diffi- 

 culty in detaching it. They remain thus until they have attained the length of one-half or threo- 

 fpurths of an inch, or until the yolk sac is entirely absorbed. During this period the adult fish 

 occupies the cavity beneath the stone, and if driven from it speedily returns. The fish is in all 

 cases the mother of the young ones, but that she is there for the purpose of guarding them we 

 have no means of determining; we can only infer it." 



At Noank, Connecticut, in 1874, I had an opportunity of watching the progress of the spawn- 

 ing season. July 14, numerous eggs were found clinging to the stones in water one to two feet in 

 depth; later in the season, July 21, young fish, half an inch long, were plenty, and September 1 

 these had attained an average length of one inch. Individuals, apparently of the second year's 

 growth, were also common, and would average three-fourths of an inch in length. 1 



'Silas Stearns writes: "In the Gulf of Mexico the Toad-fish spawns in April or May. When iU young have 

 been hatched, the older fish seem to guard them, and teach them the devices of securing food in much the same 

 manner that a hen does her chickens. I have spout hours in watching their movements at this time, and was at first 

 mnch surprised by the sagacity and patience displayed by the parent fish." 



