18 COPE I A 



The following measurements and notes were tak- 

 en : Total length 9 feet ; width 7 ft. 9 in. ; eye to snout 

 14 in.; diameter of orbit 5 in; eye to base of pectoral 

 17 in.; length of pectoral 15 in.; width 12M.» in.; gill 

 opening 4*4 x 6Vj in.; length of dorsal (mutilated) 

 2 ft. 5 in.; width 23 in.; length of anal 21 in. 



Color silvery; body, especially anteriorly, cov- 

 ered with hard, bony, silvery, stellate or granular 

 plates. 



After the fish had been caught in the net it was 

 attacked by sharks and badly mutilated, especially 

 on the fins and about the nose. 



It was said that this fish weighed 2,500 pounds, 

 but I cannot vouch for the truth of this statement. 

 My own estimate was not to exceed 1,800 pounds. 



This was said to be the largest fish of this species 

 ever taken by San Francisco fishermen. Smaller ex- 

 amples weighing 300 to 400 pounds are occasionally 

 taken. One was brought in in April of this year that 

 weighed about 300 pounds. One was taken in June, 

 1893, off Redondo Beach, California, that measured 

 8 ft. 2 in., and weighed 1,800 pounds. 



Barton Warren Evermann, 



San Francisco, Cat. 



[The mounted skin of a Mola 10 ft 2 in. in total 

 length from Long Beach, California, May, 1911, is 

 exhibited in the American Museum of Natural His- 

 tory, New York. — Ed.] 



HIBERNATION OF REPTILES. 



A friend in Bridgeport, Connecticut, is my au- 

 thority for the statement that there seems to be a 

 great difference in animals, as to their tendency to 

 hibernate in winter, and the effect of temperature 

 upon the physical phases of their life. He had had 

 for three vears, in 1910, a brace of rattle-snakes, 



