1. The tunica externa of the anterior sac of the swimbladder in Cyprinidae is highly extensible, but a large part of its compliance is associated with retardation times greater than one second. The compliance is only partly reversible.

  2. The significance of these properties is discussed in relation to a possible high-pass frequency filter for the Weberian apparatus.

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Compliance (cm.2/dyne) is here used as the reciprocal of Young’s modulus. This usage must be distinguished from the use of compliance (cm./dyne) as the reciprocal of stiffness. There appears to be no generally accepted term for the reciprocal of Young’s modulus (Burton, 1954)1 but I follow Alfrey & Doty (1945) in calling this quantity ‘compliance’.

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