HABITS AND LIFE HISTORY OF THE TOADFISH (OPSANUS TAU), 



By E. W GUDGER, Ph. D., 

 State Normal and Industrial College, Greensboro, N. C. 



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MATERIALS AND METHODS OF STUDY. 



The material on which this paper is based was collected and the notes 

 were made while the author was a temporary assistant in the United States 

 Fisheries Laboratory at Beaufort, N. C, during the summers of 1906, 1907, 

 and 1908. The collections were made in all parts of the harbor, but the best 

 collecting ground was a shoal lying directly in front of and not farther distant 

 from the south front of the laboratory than 100 yards. 



The "nests," consisting of tin cans, empty Pinna shells, pieces of board, 

 etc., were brought in in buckets of water and placed in aquariums or in shallow 

 pans under jets of running salt water, or in a large tank 3,^ by 7^4^ feet, filled 

 with fresh salt water to a depth of 6 inches. In some of these aquariums there 

 were placed nests with guarding fish ; in others nests without any fish ; while in 

 the tank there were always numbers of fish, both adults and half grown. 



The nests thus placed were perfectly accessible and could be inspected at 

 any hour of the twenty-four. Daily they were taken out, put in shallow pans 

 of water, and minutely examined under a glass. Selected eggs and larva; were 

 put in killing fluids, careful notes were taken, and at intervals the eggs and 

 nests were photographed." 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ADULT TOADFISH. 



For a description of this singular fish the writer can not do better than 



quote Doctor Gill (1907) and Miss Clapp (1S99), since their descriptions leave 



little or nothing to be added. Doctor Gill says: 



They [the toadiishes] have an oblong form, a broad flattish head, restricted lateral 

 gill openings, two dorsal fins, the anterior very small and with only two or three spines, 

 the second very long, the anal moderately long, the pectorals broad, and the ventrals 

 jugular and imperfect (i, 2- or 3-rayed). 



o I am under obligations to Mr. Henry D. AUer, Director of the Beaufort Laboratory, for furthering 

 this research in every way possible, and to Dr. H. E. Enders, of Purdue University, for taking the 

 photographs from which some of the figures are made. The other figures are made from photographs- 

 taken by myself. 



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