392 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS [voL. 48 
condition obtains are Batrachoidids, in which the pectoral fin-rays 
are all soft and entirely incapable of wounding. In Opsanus tau 
there is found at the angle formed by the inner surface of the pec- 
toral fin placed vertically to the body a large round opening (2 
mm. in a female measuring 18 centimeters in total length), leading 
into a cavity on the inner surface of which there are about 15 
lengthened tubular glands whose secreting cells are club-shaped, 
cylindrical, and uncommonly large (0.275 mm. long). The con- 
tents are either a fine-grained or a 
clear yellow substance, strongly re- 
fracting the light and resembling 
oil; it has a central position and is 
about half as large as the transverse 
diameter of the cell. The whole 
glandular mass has a pea-like form 
and is slightly compressed; its 
largest diameter (in height) is 8 
millimeters.” : 
The toadfishes are emphatically 
ground fishes and inhabit a long 
reach of the eastern American coast 
from the Gulf of Mexico and Cuba 
to Cape Cod; Jordan and Evermann 
well express the facts in the state- 
ment that the northern form is “ very 
abundant among rocks and weeds 
close to the shore northward,—in 
deeper water southward.” 
According to Goode (1884), “ the 
bottom temperature of the water 
frequented by these fish would appear to range from 50° F. to 
go° F.,” the latter extreme, of course, being quite exceptional. 
“Tn the more northern regions throughout which they are distrib- 
uted they appear to become torpid, or nearly so, in winter.’ They 
are very hardy and tenacious of life, and will survive, for hours, 
exposure in the dry air and “soon recover their ordinary activity 
when restored to the water.” 
In clear water, where circumstances favor, toadfishes may be 
seen, prone on the ground, mostly lying down for their full length, 
but not seldom more or less curved, and somewhat upraised at the 
head end; generally one is partly hidden by an overlying stone or 
weeds but, although assimilated to the color and appearance of its 
Fic, 107.—Common toadfish’s skull 
from above. Original by Starks. 
