Annual report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution (1908) (14583849619)

Identifier: annualreportofbo1908smitfo (find matches)
Title: Annual report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution
Year: 1846 (1840s)
Authors: Smithsonian Institution. Board of Regents United States National Museum. Report of the U.S. National Museum Smithsonian Institution. Report of the Secretary
Subjects: Smithsonian Institution Smithsonian Institution. Archives Discoveries in science
Publisher: Washington : Smithsonian Institution
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries



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parallels ofnorth latitude, and in 40° W. from Greenwich, appears to occupy thesame position at the present time as it did in the days of Columbus,who first described it. Persistent as it is, a considerable fauna hasbeen developed characteristic of the sargassum or sargasso meadows. The animals that find homes in such quarters represent most of theclasses of which species are found along the shores of continents andislands, such as crustaceans, gastropods, cephalopods, and fishes, andall these may be relied upon for food if they approach within reachof the Pterophryne. Some of the most characteristic of these areswimming crabs (Portunids) of the genus Neptunus and the squar-ish grapsid named Planes minutus; small cuttle fishes of the genusOnychia^ and fishes of the pipefish family (Siphostoma) and amberfish (Seriola). Flying fishes of different kinds are also tenants ofthose fields, although they may^ rarely show themselves in the air. 604 ANNUAL EEPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1908.
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Fig. 43.—The Sargasso weed (iSaryassum baccifcruiii). After Harvey. ANGLER FISHES—GILL. 605 Although the ocean area covered by the sargassum is approximatelythe same for unlimited time, there is, nevertheless, an ever-presentliability for drift of individual plants along its borders in directionsdetermined by currents and winds. Naturally the attaches of theplants are drifted with them. Thus it happens that there are notinfrequent incursions of the Pterophryne on the American coast andesi^ecially along that of Rhode Island and southern Massachusetts.Dr. Hugh Smith in 1897 had an opportunity to collect many specimens of the fish in VinejardSound off Woods Hole and to observe the behavior of numbers kept for severalweeks in the aquarium of the Bureau of Fisheries. The species occurs only asan involuntary straggler in that region, and in thirty-five years has been ob-served there during only five or six seasons. The prevalence of southerly windsand the presence of masses of sargassum