GILL] LIFE HISTORIES OF TOADFISHES 389 
two dorsal fins, the anterior very small and with only two or three 
spines, the second very long, the anal moderately long, the pec- 
torals broad, and the ventrals jugular and imperfect (1, 2 or 3- 
rayed). The most distinctive characteristics, however, are hidden 
by the skin and muscles and relate especially to the structure of the 
vertebrz, skull, shoulder girdle, and bones at the bases of the pec- 
_toral fins. The most striking character is the development of five 
well developed and elongated actinosts instead of four as in the 
great majority of fishes; the peculiar forms of these are well shown 
in the accompanying drawing by Mr. and Mrs. E. C. Starks. The 
Fic. 103.—Toadfish’s shoulder girdle. ac, Actinost 5; c, ccenosteon or principal 
bone; ho, hypocoracoid; hy, hypercoracoid. Original by Starks. 
skull is flat and divided into two parts, a narrow anterior fronto- 
rostral and an abruptly widened parieto-occipital. The want of a 
suborbital chain of bones is a marked characteristic. 
The species are not numerous—about twenty—but the differences 
among them are such as to have led ichthyologists to distinguish 
as many as seven genera. One of these is Opsanus represented 
by a common species along the Atlantic seaboard of the United 
States, and another Porichthys, typified by one along the Pacific 
coast. 
The common name toadfish by which the Batrachoidids are almost 
universally known in the United States is elsewhere used in a very 
different sense, and even in the United States it is locally applied 
to other fishes. In Florida it is almost as generally used for the 
Malthids as for the Batrachoidids. Sometimes it is given to the 
Tetraodontids, more generally known as swell-toads or puffers. 
Occasionally, too, it is heard in connection with Antennarioid fishes, 
otherwise known as the frog-fishes. With a qualifying prefix it is 
also used for still other forms. According to Mr. Barton Bean, in 
parts of Florida poison toad or toadfish is applied to species of 
Scorpena and electric toad is a name for the Astroscopes; at 
