HABITS AND LIFE HISTORY OF THE TOADFISH. IO89 



In 1907 a fish trap was hung off the wharf and kept baited for toadfish. 

 There were caught, almost daily, numbers with bellies enormously distended 

 with fish swallowed while in the trap. On being put into the tank the toads 

 disgorged pieces of fish of such large size that one wondered how they could 

 have been swallowed. One giant toad had his belly swollen balloon-fashion to 

 such an extent that for two or three days his tail parts floated high in the 

 water (nor could he get them down) while his nose rubbed the floor of the tank. 

 He finally, however, got rid of both food and gas and seemed to be none the 

 worse for his experience. 



On the trip to the oyster rock holding the old log remains of a fish house, 

 elsewhere referred to, large numbers of toads (about 25) were found under the 

 rotting logs partly imbedded in the sand and shells. These fish all had dis- 

 tended abdomens, leading me to hope that some of them at least were ripe 

 females; but under pressure they gave out blue crab remains either at one end 

 or the other. Those that were brought in and dissected proved to be males, 

 the distension in all cases being due to crabs. These were the only guardians 

 I have ever found that were particularly distended with food. That they 

 were so well fed is doubtless due to the fact that as the water receded the crabs 

 sought shelter under the very logs which concealed the toadfish, their worst 

 enemies. 



Capture of food. — As to the manner in which the toadfish catches its prey, 

 Silas Steam's description, as quoted by Goode (1884), is so accurate as to leave 

 nothing to be added : 



It secures its food rather by strategy and stealth than by swiftness of motion. Hid- 

 ing under or behind stones, rocks, or weeds, or stealing from one cover to another, it 

 watches its victims until the latter are near by, when it darts forth with a quickness quite 

 astonishing, considering its usual sluggishness, and back again to its hiding place, hav- 

 ing one or more fish in its stomach and on the alert for others. 



Linton (1901) notes that its alimentary canal is chiefly filled with crusta- 

 cean and molluscan remains and the bones and scales of fishes. 



The mouth of the toadfish is eminently fitted for the catching and recep- 

 tion of the kind of food described above. The buccal cavity is enormous, as 

 might be inferred from the size of the great, broad, blunt head. The gape of 

 the mouth is very large and the powerful jaws are filled with bluntly conical 

 teeth (as first noted by De Kay (1842) and later (1855) by Storer) with which 

 the fish can inflict a rather severe and painful bite. Incidents to illustrate the 

 action and utility of the mouth and jaws appear in the following paragraphs. 



Disposition. — The toadfish is commonly credited with having a savage and 

 even vicious disposition, an impression which is to some extent due to its unpre- 

 possessing appearance. After a somewhat intimate acquaintance with more 

 than 100 individuals, however, I find that, like other animals, some are of good 



