ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 



1163 



U. S. S. FISH HAWK— oriKR TRAWL CDLMi DOWN 



The dredging stations occupied by the Fish 

 Hawk were accurately platted upon charts by 

 the naval officers attached to the ship, whicli 

 when published together with lists of the 

 species obtained, will be of interest to anglers 

 and naturalists alike. Mr. Madison Grant, 

 Chairman of the Executive Committee, spent 

 two days on board, and Dr. Davenport of Cold 

 Spring, and Dr. Osburn of the Aquarium, each 

 assisted in this work on board the vessel for 

 a few days. Mr. Sanborn, of the Zoological 

 Park, spent a day on board making motion 

 pictures of the methods employed in marine in- 

 vestigations, which should prove of interest, 

 and will doubtless be exhibited at the next 

 annual meeting of the Zoological Society. 



One result of the Fish Hawk's work was the 

 collecting of live specimens for the Aquarium. 



The Bureau of Fisheries has authorized the 

 publication of the results bj' the New York 

 Zoological Society, and it is likely that this 

 will ])rove desirable. C. H. T. 



MOVEMENTS OF SEA ANEMONES. 

 By R. C. Osburn. 



SEA-ANEMONES as a rule are not great 

 travelers. It is quite probable that many 

 persons who are familiar with the appear- 

 ance and structure of these polyps have never 

 observed them to move, and may not even be 

 aware that they are capable of locomotion. 



Some species move more rapidly than others 

 — or less slowly, more projjerly speaking — but 

 even with the speediest ot them, it is necessary 

 to watch them very closely to see that they 

 move at all. As a rule one can see that they 

 have moved only by comparing the positions 

 assumed from day to day. Probably those 

 of our ancestors who were responsible for the 

 old sayings did not know about this ; otherwise 

 wlien they were selecting an object to repre- 

 sent the limit of deliberation they would have 

 given us not "as slow as a snail," but as slow 

 as a sea-anemone. 



Probably some sea-anemones favorably sit- 

 uated as to food and oxygen never change their 

 location — at least certain individuals at the 

 .\quarium have remained for months without 

 :\.\\y change of position. It is conceivable that 

 those less comfortably situated might be able 

 to better their conditions by a change of local- 

 ity. ^^'llen tliis is done, the method known to 

 students of animal behavior as "trial and 

 error' seems to be the only way of attaining 

 the desired situation. Again the method of 

 asexual reproduction known as fragmentation, 

 by which buds are cut off from the base of the 

 ])arent, would require some shifting of position 

 in order that the family thus derived might not 

 he too much crowded and that all might have 

 an ojjportunity to secure food. But why such 

 an animal in an aquarium jar, supplied with 

 sufficient oxygen and with all the food it would 

 consume and not possessing the sort of family 

 just described, should be seized with the "wan- 

 derlust" when all of its fellows were content 



U. S. S. KISH HAWK— OTTKR TRAWL BEGINNLNU 

 TO SPREAD OUT 



