New York, April 24, 1916. No. 30 



Published to advance the Science of cold-blooded vertebrates 



A SECOND OCCURRENCE OF ERILEPIS 

 IN AMERICAN WATERS 



Although the giant bass-like fish, Erilepis zoni- 

 fer, was described for the first time from Monterey 

 Bay on the coast of California, it has never since been 

 recorded from American waters, and it has come to 

 be regarded as a stray from Japan, where it is of 

 rather common occurrence, having been occasionally 

 seen by Doctor Jordan and Professor Snyder in 

 their explorations of Japan. It is of great interest, 

 then, to find it, perhaps as a stray, in the waters of 

 Alaska. 



The writer had the good fortune to see the 

 specimen in a frozen condition at Prince Rupert, just 

 as it had been landed from one of the halibut 

 schooners, the "Mallola." According to the mem- 

 bers of the crew, it had been caught in Southeastern 

 Alaska, in one of the long inland straits which form 

 the "Inside Passage," either in Frederick Sound or 

 Chatham Straits. There is no reason to doubt the 

 fact that the fish came from that locality, as it could 

 not have been imported from other regions, nor was 

 the boat able to make distant trips. The winter had 

 been a very bitter one up to that time, the last of 

 January, and it may have been that changed condi- 

 tions had led to the straying of this specimen from 

 its usual habitat, or that the halibut fishermen had 

 fished in unusual places. 



