REPORT OF COMMISSIONERS OF INLAND FISHERIES. 93 



drift in from the Gulf Stream in summer and autumn during long east and 

 southeast blows. This fish furnishes an interesting example of protective 

 resemblance. Reference to the illustration given in Plate VI shows the 

 mottling of its body and the ntunerous filamentous appendages attached 

 to its skin. This gives them such a resemblance to the gulfweed in which 

 they float that they must be very effectively hidden from their enemies. 

 With regard to their habits, Smith (The Fishes of Wood's Hole) , speaking 

 of some specimens in an aquarium at Wood's Hole, says: "While clumsy 

 in their movements they were adepts at approaching and capturing other 

 fishes. They are quite cannibalistic and one 6 inches long swallowed 

 another 4 inches long, and they frequently bit off the fleshy dermal ap- 

 pendages of their fellows." 



As far as is known the two specimens above referred to are the only 

 members of this species ever taken in Rhode Island waters. Their pres- 

 ence here at that particular time is explained by the following data which 

 has been kindly furnished by Mr. W. L. Day, Observer, Weather Bureau, 

 Block Island. The direction of the wind during the two weeks previous to 

 September 6, 1904, was prevailingly southwest for five days, east for three 

 days, south for three days, northwest for three days. The mean velocity, 

 moreover, for the two weeks under consideration was greater than the 

 average by a difference amounting to about five miles an hour, the normal 

 hourly velocity for August and September being 13 miles, and the average 

 hourly velocity for the two weeks being 18. Remembering the general 

 trend of the Atlantic coast and bearing in mind the fact that Cape Cod is 

 less than 100 miles distant from the western edge of the Gulf Stream, it is 

 easily seen that the drift of the Gulf Stream and the winds of the direction 

 and velocity noted above would unite to. form a resultant acting on the 

 floating masses of gulfweed so as to drive them northward and into the 

 huge "pocket" formed by the configuration of the southern New England 

 coast. 



OGCOCEPHALID.E. The Bat Fishes. 



177. Dibranchus atlanticus (Peters). 



Geog. Dist.: Deep waters of the Atlantic; very abundant in about 300 



fathoms; north in the Gulf Stream to Rhode Island. 

 Season in R. I. : Very many specimens have been taken in the tile-fish area 

 at depths ranging from 100 to 500 fathoms. A single specimen was cap- 

 tured off Block Island in 1880. (Goode and Bean, Oceanic Ichthyology, 

 1896, 501.) 



