Full Description

"Toadfish sounds (an agonistic grunt and a courtship boatwhistle) are generated by synchronous contraction of paired intrinsic muscles. which cause a rapid change in bladder volume (Tower. 1908: Skoglund. 1961; Gainer & Klancher. 1965)."

"Muscle contraction rate and not bladder resonance determines the fundamental frequency and harmonic interval of toadfish sound (Skoglund, 1961; Cohen & Winn, 1967; Fine et al., 1977a)."

"Calling populations of toadfish are composed of males of markedly different sizes, yet the range of fundamental frequencies in a single recording from such a population may be as small as 15 Hz (Tavolga, 1964; Fine, 1978). Likewise Fish (1954) found the principal frequencies of the toadfish grunt are not related to fish size. Finally, unlike the situation in codfish (Hawkins & Rasmussen, 1978), real-time analysis demonstrates that spectra of individual cycles of a boatwhistle are equivalent to the spectrum of the entire call (Capranica, Yager and Fine, unpublished observations)."

"Since toadfish typically communicate over short distances in shallow water (Fish. 1972: Fine & Lenhardt. in preparation), a fish in nature will be subjected to both displacement and pressure as in this experiment rather than to a pure pressure field."

"According to these calculations. the resonant frequency of the fish used in this study should have ranged from 230 Hz for the largest individual (321 mm TL) to 410 Hz for the smallest individual (190 mm TL)."

"Playback of natural and synthetic boatwhistles has demonstrated that fundamental frequency and duration can vary widely and still facilitate calling males in the field (Winn. 1972; Fish, 1972). However. temporal patterning is of paramount importance in message exchange between calling toadfish (Winn, 1967; Fish, 1972; Fine et (II., 1977a,b), and neighboring males pace their calls so that they do not overlap in time, In fact the presence of a boatwhistle or a continuous tone will actually suppress a calling male (Fish, 1972; Fish & Offutt. 1972). When a continuous tone is followed by a silent period, a toadfish will boatwhistle in the silent period. Fish (1972) found that toadfish are approximately twice as fdSt as human beings in being able to respond to silence following a tone."

Observation Environment Quotes

"Tests were run in a 38 I. (I 0gal) tank filled with water. A fish was suspended in a horizontal position in the middle of the tank by 3 lines, each ending in a fisherman’s snap swivel attached to a loop of cat gut sewn into the fish."

Behaviour Description Quotes

"Toadfish sounds (an agonistic grunt and a courtship boatwhistle) are generated by synchronous contraction of paired intrinsic muscles. which cause a rapid change in bladder volume (Tower. 1908: Skoglund. 1961; Gainer & Klancher. 1965). "

"The ten fish in this study had previously been used for neurophysiological investigation of the auditory nerve. The first nine had been frozen and were thawed for these experiments, while the final fish was freshly dead."

Sound Name Quotes

"Toadfish sounds (an agonistic grunt and a courtship boatwhistle) are generated by synchronous contraction of paired intrinsic muscles. which cause a rapid change in bladder volume (Tower. 1908: Skoglund. 1961; Gainer & Klancher. 1965). "

"Muscle contraction rate and not bladder resonance determines the fundamental frequency and harmonic interval of toadfish sound (Skoglund, 1961; Cohen & Winn, 1967; Fine et al., 1977a). "

" Finally, unlike the situation in codfish (Hawkins & Rasmussen, 1978), real-time analysis demonstrates that spectra of individual cycles of a boatwhistle are equivalent to the spectrum of the entire call (Capranica, Yager and Fine, unpublished observations)."