294 Zoological N. Y. Zoological Society. [1; 16 



Virginia. At the latter point the consignment was met by 

 the Director of the Aquarium, who promptly filled the tank con- 

 taining the two survivors with water. One of these animals 

 died soon after reaching New York, but the other lived two 

 and a half months, notwithstanding the fact that the heating 

 it had undergone during the first stage of shipment resulted in 

 injuries which eventually ended its career. While adult por- 

 poises give no special signs of distress when carried dry, they 

 become greatly heated and develop large blisters, which later 

 become festering sores, extending through the blubber and 

 into the flesh. Being adapted to a life in the water, to which 

 they naturally radiate a great amount of heat, water is abso- 

 lutely necessary for the control of the body temperature. 



Believing that plenty of cool water would insure safety 

 during transportation, the Director of the Aquarium went to 

 Hatteras in November, 1913, to supervise personally the details 

 of shipment, which, entrusted to others, had been disregarded. 

 As far as the adult animals are concerned, the results of the 

 trip have been satisfactory, but the five half-grown animals, 

 brought at the same time, died soon after their arrival in New 

 York. The adults, each about eight feet long, gave no trouble 

 during shipment, while the young were exceedingly restless and 

 continually brufsed themselves by their struggles in the ship- 

 ping tanks. 



Porpoises are hot-blooded, blubber-covered mammals and 

 give off so much heat that the water of the shipping tanks be- 

 comes actually warm, and must be replaced by cold water every 

 five or six hours. Immediately after their capture at Hatteras, 

 where they were brought to land with a large drag-seine, the 

 porpoises were placed for twenty-four hours in a deep salt 

 water pond just back of the ocean beach. Here they had an 

 opportunity to recover somewhat from the fright of capture, 

 and to rest in cool water. No chances whatever were taken 

 in the matter of temperature. On the beach their natural 

 warmth of body would no doubt have been greatly increased by 

 the hot sunshine. The following day they were seined out of 

 the pond and placed in the shipping tanks, which were then 

 hoisted on board a schooner and at once filled with water. Dur- 

 ing the voyage through the fresh waters of Pamlico Sound and 



