. Annual report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution . an edible fish and, according to Schlegel, even the piscivorous Jap-anese consider the flesh of the species to be poisonous. As such it isranked by Pellegrin in Les Poissons Veneneux. PART III. THE SO-CALLED NEST OF THE FROG FISH. A summary of all that has been positively made known of thehabit of the frog fish has now been given, but a remarkable episodein its history deserves to be here recorded. For just about a genera-tion (thirty-three years) that fish was signalized as a nest maker, thefabricator of a subglobular ne
. Annual report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution . an edible fish and, according to Schlegel, even the piscivorous Jap-anese consider the flesh of the species to be poisonous. As such it isranked by Pellegrin in Les Poissons Veneneux. PART III. THE SO-CALLED NEST OF THE FROG FISH. A summary of all that has been positively made known of thehabit of the frog fish has now been given, but a remarkable episodein its history deserves to be here recorded. For just about a genera-tion (thirty-three years) that fish was signalized as a nest maker, thefabricator of a subglobular nest constructed from a frond of the sar-gasso weed, in the midst of which it is most abundant. This supposedfunction was the result of a misidentification of eggs found in connec-tion with masses of sargassum frequently to be met with in or aboutthe winter months in subtropical waters. The first to notice the egg masses was Prof. Louis Agassiz, who ob-tained one during a voyage in the coast survey vessel Hassler near the 610 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, island of St. Thomas, West Indies, in December, 1871. He gave avery interesting account of the supposed nest in a letter to the super-intendent of the United States Coast Survey, which was published inthe American Journal of Science and Arts for February, 1872, (thirdseries. Vol. Ill, pp. 154-156). The article was republished in wholeor part far and wide. He may declare for himself: The most interesting discovery of the voyage thus far is the finding of a nestbuilt by a fish floating on the broad ocean with its live freight. On the 13thof the month [December], Mr. Mansfield, one of the officers of the Hassler,brought me a ball of gulf weed which he had just picked up and which excitedmy curiosity to the utmost. It was a round mass of sargassum, about the sizeof two fists, rolled up together. The whole consisted to all appearance ofnothing but gulf weed, the branches and leaves of which were, however, evi-dently k
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