396 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS [vot. 48 
Captain Charles B. Hudson recently informed Dr. W. C. Kendall, . 
that “‘ when he was making color drawings of fishes at Key West, 
Fla., in the spring of 1897, he had for a studio a small hut on a pier 
some distance from shore. Frequently while at work there, under 
and near the pier, he heard a sound having somewhat of a musical 
quality, presumably produced by some fish, the identity of which 
for a long time he could not make out. The nearest verbal ap- 
proach to the sound was ‘ kiang-king,’ or ‘koong-koong,’ about the 
same pitch and time being given to both parts of the word or 
sound. Fisherman said it was a fish which from its voice they 
called ‘ Kung-Kung,’ but no one had ever seen the fish to recognize 
it. Later Mr. Hudson caught a toadfish (Opsanus pardus) and 
placed it in a bucket or pan of water on the floor 
of the building where he was at work and ere 
long heard the sound, this time within the hut. 
-me  TJe thus ascertained that it was the toadfish that 
was the mysterious songster. How the sound 
was produced he did not learn.” 
SMP ten: W. Sorensen, in a work on the sound produc- 
‘mon toadfsh’s air ing organs of fishes (Om Lydorganer hos Fiske, 
bladder. a, Anterior 1884), declared that the sounds emitted by the 
lobes of air bladder; toadfish are produced by the air-bladder and the 
mso, musculus son- contraction and relaxation of the muscles of the 
bladder. ‘The viscus has a characteristic form; 
it is rather small—about a ninth of the length 
of the fish—and nearly double, being so deeply divided that it 
appears as if paired for the greater part of its length and is only 
continuous behind; it is described by Sdrensen as follows :* Above, 
the division extends backward half as far again as on the underside. 
The inner surface of the air-bladder presents no projecting mem- 
branous partitions or the like. The outer membrane is strong, 
tough, fibrous and rigid; the inner somewhat thicker than usual. 
On the sides of the air-bladder are found a couple of large mus- 
cular bands, especially thick behind, which cover more than half the 
surface of the organ. On the underside they do not extend as far 
toward the middle as on the upper surface, where they meet behind. 
The muscular fibers run transversely but at the same time somewhat 
obliquely backwards (on the ventral side beginning at the middle, on 
the upper side toward the middle) ; towards the hinder end of the 
organ the fibers gradually run evenly transversely. The pleura is 
strong, but rather thin; it is, however, thicker behind on the back- 
side, where the muscle bands meet. 
ans. After Soren- 
sen. 
1 Translated from the Danish. 
