420 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN. 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN. 



EDITED BY THE DIRECTOR 



Ehvin R. Sanborn, Asst. Editor 



Published Quarierly at the Office of the Society, 



11 Wall St., New Yoi-h City. 



Copyright, 190S, by the New York Zoological Society. 



No. 29. APRIL, 1908. 



Subscription price, SO cents for four numbers. 



Single numbers, 15 cents. 



MAILED FREE TO MEMBERS. 



(j^SiccrB of tiff Sorirtg. 



Hon 



Levi P. Morton. 



S.xrnititii' (Sammillrr: 



Prof. Henry FAiRFiELD Osborn, Chairman, 

 John S. Barnes, .Madison Grant, 



Percv R. Pyne, William White Niles, 



Samuel Thorne. 



Levi P. Morton, ex-ofjUcio. 



(Smrral i^&tna -. 



Secretary Madison Grant, 11 Wall Street. 



Treasurer. Percy R. Pyne, 52 Wall Street. 



Direclor, William T. Hornaday, Zoolooical Park. 



Director of the Aquarium, Charles H. Townsend, Battery Park. 



iSoiirti nf iflaimgrrs : 



EX-OFFICIO, 

 The Mavor of the Citv of A'l-ii' York, Hon. George B. McClellan. 

 The President of the Dep't of Parks. Hon. Henry Smith. 



(EUSE of 1909. 



Levi P. Morion, 

 Andrew Carnegie, 

 John L. Cadwalader, 

 John S. Barnes. 

 Madison Grant, 

 William White Niles, 

 Samuel Thome, 

 Henry A. C. Taylor, 

 Hugh J. Chisholm, 

 Wni. D. Sloane, 

 Winthrop Rutherford. 

 Frank K. Sturgis. 



Qllasa of 1910. 



F. Augustus Schermerl 

 Percy R. Pyne, 

 George B. Grinnell, 

 Jacob H. Schiff, 

 Edward J. Berwind, 

 George C. Clark, 

 Cleveland H. Dodge. 

 C. Ledyard Blair, 

 Cornelius Vanderllilt. 

 Nelson Robinson, 

 Frederick G. Bourne, 

 W. Austin Wadsworth. 



ailaaadf 1911. 



, Henry F. Osborn, 

 James W.Barney, 

 William C. Church 

 Lispenard Stewart 

 H. Casimir De Rhi 

 George Crocker, 

 Hugh D. Auchincl. 

 Charles F. Dieterii 

 James J. Hill, 

 George F. Baker. 

 Grant B. Schley, 

 Payne Whitney, 



THE LARGEST MARINE ANIMALS. 



The sulphur-bottom whale, %vhicli is defi- 

 nitely known to attain a length of eighty feet, 

 is the largest animal that lives or ever has 

 hved in the sea or on land, and there are 

 other species of whales which frequently ex- 

 ceed sixty feet in length. It is not generally 

 known that certain species of .sharks attain 

 lengths nearly equal to those reached liy 

 moderate-sized whales. 



Tlie largest of all fishes is the great whale- 

 shark, (Rhinodon ti/plcus), which is widely 

 distributed in tropical seas, and has been 

 found on the shores of Florida and the Gulf 

 of California. It reaches a length of sixt}' 

 feet. 



The next largest fish is the basking shark, 

 (Cetorli'mus maxlmus), of colder waters, 

 which is credited with attaining a length of 

 more than forty feet. Both of these sharks 



are entirely inoffensive, living chiefly at the 

 surface of the water, where they feed exclu- 

 sively on small marine life. 



The great blue shark, (Carcliarodon car- 

 char'ias), is however, a fish of entirely dif- 

 ferent Jiabits, being an active species with a 

 man-eating reputation. Specimens of enor- 

 mous size have been taken, and it is believed 

 by naturalists to grow as long as forty feet. 

 The oar fish, (Regalecus glesne), a fish of 

 eel-like form but entirely inoffensive, is be- 

 lieved to attain a length of thirty feet. Quite 

 recently a twenty-two-foot specimen, weigh- 

 ing between 500 and 600 pounds, was taken 

 at Newport, California. 



Among the rays we find fishes of enormous 

 size, the largest of which is pi'obably Manta 

 hlrostris, which has a spread across the disc 

 of as much as twenty feet, and a specimen 

 weighing 1250 pounds has been taken. When 

 Admiral Dewey was captain of the U. S. S. 

 Narragansett, a specimen was captured by 

 that vessel in the Gulf of California, which 

 measured seventeen feet wide. 



A fish probably exceeding in bulk even the 

 largest of the rays, is the ocean sunfi.sh, 

 (Mola mola), which is credited with a weight 

 of 1800 pounds. A specimen of this fish was 

 taken not long ago at Redondo Beach, Cali- 

 fornia, which weighed 1200 pounds. Other 

 fishes of great size are, the sawfish, (Pristis), 

 exceeding twenty feet, the tuna, (ThttnnusJ, 

 reaching fifteen feet and 1500 pounds, and 

 the sleeper shark, (Somniosus), reaching 

 twenty-five feet. 



The great crocodile of the East Indies and 

 Australia, (Crocodilus porosus), frequently 

 found in salt water, has been measured at 

 thirty-three feet and is undoubtedly the larg- 

 est of all crocodilians. 



The leather-back turtle, (Sphargis coria- 

 cea), is largest among the sea turtles. Pro- 

 fessor Agassiz saw specimens "weighing over 

 a ton." 



One of the very long sea animals is the 

 giant squid, (Architeuthis), three specimens 

 of which have been taken on the coast of New- 

 foundland measuring fifty-five, fifty-two and 

 forty-two feet, respectively ; the last of these 

 was exhibited for a time in the old New York 

 Aquarium on Broadway. 



The octopus, which lacks the extremely 

 long tentacles of the squid, has been meas- 



