278 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 



THE GIANT SALAMANDER. 

 This specimen is 30 inches long, and has been in captivity six years. 



GIANT SALAMANDER. 



THE Giant Salamander (Cryplobranchus japon- 

 iciis), in the Aquarium has been growing 

 ■slowly and is now thirty inches long. It was 

 received at the Zoological Park just six years ago, 

 and was transferred to the Aquarium three years 

 later. 



This species inhabits mountain streams of China 

 and Japan and has been found 4,500 feet above sea- 

 level. 



A specimen taken to Europe in 1829 by Th. von 

 Siebold, who discovered it, lived fifty-two years in 

 •captivity. 



The largest specimen known measured a trifle 

 ■over five feet in length. This species is very closely 

 related to the American hellbender {Cryptohranchiis 

 allegheniensis), which is kept in the same tank, 

 iDUt differs from it in having no gill openings what- 

 ever. During the larval stage it possesses external 

 gills. It has bred in captivity in the Amsterdam 

 Zoological Gardens. 



SOUNDS MADE BY FISHES. 



AMONG the fishes usually to be seen at the 

 Aquarium are several kinds which make 

 •croaking or drumming sounds. These are grunts, 

 croakers, drums, sea robins, weakfish, kingfish, 

 ■etc. They are nearly all sea fishes, more or less 

 abundant in New York waters, although the fresh- 



water drum of the Great Lakes and Mississippi 

 Valley is equally famous for the sounds it makes. 

 The sounds are made in different ways, some fishes 

 alwa3'S producing them when taken from the water. 



At night, when on board a schooner anchored in 

 certain shallow bays in Central America, I have 

 heard the continuous croaking of hundreds of fishes 

 underneath the vessel. 



At the Woods Hole marine laboratory of the 

 United States Fisheries Bureau, the drumming 

 mechanism of fishes has been studied and ex- 

 perimented upon by Prof. W. R. Tower of the 

 American Museum of Natural History, who kindly 

 furnished the Bulletin with the following notes on 

 the subject: 



THE VOICES OF FISHES. 

 By Prof. R. W. Tower. 



Although many fishes make distinct and charac- 

 teristic noises, described as drumming, grunting, 

 grating, snoring, or singing, these sounds are in no 

 way related to the voice of man. 



The grating noise made by the common bull- 

 head, the three-spined stickleback, and certain 

 trigger-fishes is produced by the rubbing of one 

 bone upon another, which in manv instances 

 are specially modified for this purpose. Among 

 such bones may be mentioned the vertebra;, certain 

 bones of the head, and bones in fins. The rubbing 

 of one hard part of the body upon another so as to 

 produce a sound is known as striduhition. It can 



