lOyS BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 



These points had been briefly stated by her in the earHer paper (1891) 

 elsewhere referred to. 



Ryder (1886) found that— 



The adult toadfish burrows a cavity under one side of a submerged bowlder and to 

 the solid roof of this cavity the female attaches her ova in a single laver. The eggs 

 are very adhesive and quite large, measuring about one-fifth of an inch in diameter. 

 Like the male catfish, the male toadfish assumes charge of the adherent brood of eggs 

 and remains by them until they are hatched and subsequently become free. 



A year later (1887) he writes: 



They (the eggs) are dirty yellow, almost amber colored, and adherent to the surfaces 

 of submerged objects, especially the undersides of bowlders, under which the parent fish 

 seem to clear away the mud and thus form a retreat in which they may spawn. The 

 ova are attached to the roof of the little retreat prepared by the adults, where the eggs 

 are found spread out over an area about as large as one's hand, in a single layer, hardly 

 in contact with each other, and to the number of about 200. 



Yarrow (1877) , writing of the Beaufort fish, tells, as already referred to, of a 

 nest which was found in an old boot leg. Storer (1855), the first writer, so far 

 as I can find, to describe the nesting habits, found the fish living in eel grass or 

 under stones, to the latter of which eggs, several hundred in number, were found 

 attached in June, July, and August. At Beaufort a more interesting, and for 

 the collector more dangerous, place of abode is in holes dug by the 

 stone crab (Menippe mercenaria) in sand flats covered with eel grass (Zostera 

 marina). In short, the fish resort for egg laying to any place which is dark and 

 which secures a protected abode to the hatching eggs and guarding parent. 



The toadfish of the Pacific coast, Porichthys notatus, which ranges from 

 Alaska to Panama, has the habit, according to Greene (1899), of spawning 

 during spring and summer in shallow water. Here "the eggs are cemented 

 in a single layer to the under surfaces of stones, and, * * * the male 

 remains with the brood until the young become free swimming." Hargreaves 

 (1904) states that the pacuma {Batrachus surinamensis) of Guiana has the 

 habit of hiding in holes in the mud flats, but the context does not indicate 

 whether for the purpose of &gg laying or for the sake of protection. 



The eggs. — How the extrusion and fertilization of the eggs take place and 

 how their fixation to the nest is effected I have not been able to ascertain, 

 although considerable numbers of fish of both sexes were kept for months in 

 the large tank (above referred to) well equipped with tin cans, jars, boards, and 

 especially empty Pinna shells. The fish readily inhabited these receptacles, 

 but laid no eggs. On one occasion I found in a shell out in the harbor a pair 

 of fish presumably spawning, since there were a few eggs in very early stages 

 adhering to the nest. Though both fish and nest were carefully brought in and 

 placed in the tank, no more eggs were laid. 



