646 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN. 



SWELITISH INFLATING OUT OF THE WATER. 



Tile puffing practice is quite as common in 

 the very young iislies as it is in the adults. 



Puffers are not used for food and tlie Hesli of 

 some species is known to be poisonous. Ordi- 

 nary teeth are lacking in the puffers, the jaws 

 being armed with heavy parrot-like beaks. 

 They are rather active in the tanks, the young 

 especially so. They often bury themselves in 

 the sandy bottoms of tlie exhibition tank witli 

 only the eyes exposed. At such times they are 

 pale and colorless and would scarcely be no- 

 ticed in tlie sand where they lie, if it were not 

 for the pi-otruding eves. On being disturbed 

 the wliole upper surface of the fisli instantly be- 

 comes dark, mottled with still darker spots, 

 while along the sides of the bod}' six or eight 

 vertical blotches of black appear. 



The swellfish attains a length of about eight 

 inches, and spawns in this region early in June. 

 A month later the young become exceedingly 

 abundant along sand}' beaches. It is a migra- 

 tory species and departs on the appearance of 

 cold weather. 



ITEMS OF INTEREST. 



.hjiiaiium Tablet. — This tablet was placed on 

 the Aquarium building on September 25, 1909, 

 as a historical contribution of the New York 

 Zoological Society to the Hudson-Fulton Cele- 

 bration. 



American Fisheries Society). — The Fortieth 

 Anniversary Meeting of the American Fisheries 

 Society will be held at the New York Aquarium, 

 September 27, 1910. Everything possible is 

 being done to make this a notable gathering of 

 men who are interested in fisli culture and com- 

 mercial fisheries. 



better illumination of the main floor exhibits. 

 The collection of seals, sea turtles, alligators, 

 fresh-water turtles and invertebrates in small 

 aquaria can be viewed to much better advantage. 



Black Sea Bass. — Mr. M. G. Foster, a mem- 

 lier of the Zoological Society, has presented to 

 the Aquarium a large mounted specimen of the 

 lilaek sea bass, (Stereolepis i!;igas), taken by 

 himself at Santa Catalina Island, California. 

 The lish is nearly six feet long, weighed 250 

 pounds when captured, and was landed in the 

 boat in forty-five minutes after being hooked. 



This is one of the very large sea fishes often 

 caught with rod and reel in that locality. Speci- 

 mens have been taken weighing 700 pounds. 

 It is an important food fish, common along the 

 southern coast of California. 



The Aquarium Socieiy. — Sometime ago "The 

 Aquarium Society" was granted permission to 

 use the laboratory of the New York Aquarium 

 for its monthly meetings. This Society is made 

 up of persons interested in the keeping of small 

 aquaria, and several of the members have con- 

 tributed interesting fresh water forms to our 

 collections. At the meeting held January 28, 

 1910, Dr. Louis Hussakof of the Museum of 

 Natural History gave an illustrated account of 

 the Aquarium at Naples. Teachers in the pub- 

 lic schools who are interested in the subject of 

 school aquaria have been invited to attend the 

 meetings. 



Currespuudence. — The New York Aquarium, 

 like other museums, carries on a considerable 

 correspondence with the public at large. Occa- 

 sionally a letter is received which is too rich to 

 be lost in the files. 



A letter received from Ulster Co., New York, 

 says: "The dam on my place is broke and the 

 water is all run out. We have fix the dam and 

 want some more fish. Pleas attend to this at 

 once." 



Another letter from nearer home, inquires: 

 "Are you troubled with rats? If so my method 

 of killing will clean them out." 



The answer was: "The Aquarium has plenty 

 of rats but we do our own killing or rather the 

 alligators do it. If you care to empty your 

 traps into our alligator pool you will see rats 

 killed with neatness and despatch and nothing 

 left for the garbage can." 



SL-i/li gilts. — The work of placing several new 

 skylights in the Aquarium is now being com- 

 pleted, and the effect is apparent in a decidedly 



A Large Lobster. — On February 22, 1910, 

 the Aquarium received a lobster weighing six- 

 teen pounds, or a pound and a half more than 

 the giant lobster received in January, 1908, and 



