ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 



1427 



A PECULIAR HABIT OF THE MORAY 

 By Chapman Grant 



SUCCESSFUL combats among some of the 

 lower animals seem to require an empty 

 stomach. To satisfy the cravings of hun- 

 ger^ an animal will fight against heavy odds^ 

 but when outclassed it will often give up its 

 latest meal^ at once increasing the possibilities 

 for speed or fight and offering a bribe to the 

 enemy to escape further pursuit. The parasitic 

 jaeger regularly exacts tribute from gulls in 

 this way. Kipling says that the tiger is hunted 

 after he has eaten his fill and is taking his 

 siesta — with an empty stomach and senses keen 

 he could fight or retire. 



Animals have strong abdominal muscles and 

 birds possess contractile muscles which enable 

 them to disgorge. Fishes, too, have the power 

 to disgorge by simple muscular contraction, as 

 witnessed in the case of the giant grouper or 

 jewfish which swallows large spiny lobsters 

 whole, many of them, in fact, if available. 

 Some time later he ejects the empty lobster 

 shells which his powerful digestive juices have 

 colored as bright a red as if boiled. The eel- 

 like moray, however, has no such muscles which 

 can be used for disgorging, or if he has such 

 muscles at least does not use them, but resorts 

 to the following remarkable exj)edient observed 

 by the writer: 



While trapping fishes for the Aquarium at 

 Key West in 1912, one of the wire fish-pots 

 caught a number of panfish called "grunts." A 

 three-foot green moray had seen this inviting 

 meal, found his way into the trap and eaten 

 all the fish it contained. When the round of 

 the traps was made, this particular one held a 

 few frayed remnants of crawfish which had 

 served as bait for the fish, a sluggish moray look- 

 ing like a green Christmas stocking well filled 

 and the panfish visible in outline only. We had 

 plenty of morays at the Aquarium at that time, 

 so I was going to release this one for future 

 use should our stock in New York get low. 

 The fishermen with me wanted to kill the moray 

 for they dread its sharp teeth ; in fact, it is hard 

 to keep a Key Wester in the same boat with one. 

 The moray is also looked upon as a thief of 

 that which the fisherman thinks is his birth- 

 right; the claim of priority of the moray avail- 

 ing nothing. I emptied this specimen onto the 

 deck to watch him a few moments before drop- 

 ping him overboard. The fish, which is normal- 

 ly very aggressive, when cornered, could neither 

 fight nor escape in his stuffed condition. Heroic 

 measures were necessary. The swallowed fishes 

 must be jettisoned. To accomplish this, the 



moray raised the head and fore part of the 

 body, turned it to the right across the hinder 

 part, and then under and out through the 

 loop, thus forming a simple knot — nautically a 

 thumb knot. By contracting the body, he 

 tightened the knot ; and, holding the hinder 

 part of the body rigid, proceeded to back the 

 forward part out through the loop. In other 

 words he tied a loose knot in himself, tightened 

 it, held the hinder part of the bod)^ rigid and 

 untied the knot again. The first time I thought 

 it merely an aimless writhing. A second time 

 the movement was attempted with no result. 

 The third time, growing desperate and prob- 

 ably in need of oxygen, he drew the knot very 

 tight and hitched the forward part of the body 

 backwards through the loop. At the first hitch 

 nothing happened, but at the second, an eight- 

 inch grunt fish was forced out of his mouth, tail 

 first; another hitch produced another grunt, and 

 I could well imagine the moray grunting had he 

 possessed vocal powers. After five grunt fishes 

 had escaped him, each locking a little worse for 

 wear than the one preceding, came a bedraggled 

 Bermuda chub, cooked white by the digestive 

 juices. Now completelj^ disgorged, the moray 

 lay dazed for an instant, but at a touch he 

 slipped lightly into the sea and wriggled off to 

 search for another meal. 



On two other occasions I witnessed this re- 

 markable performance and had to conclude that 

 it was not accidental, but the regular and pur- 

 poseful way in which a moray reverses the feed- 

 ing process. 



The same means is resorted to when he is 

 trying to disengage himself from a hook. If 

 held dangling in the air, the moray will double 

 on himself, tie the knot and then pull his head 

 out backwards. It has always been my experi- 

 ence that the hook or line broke at this junc- 

 ture, allowing the fish to escape. Mr. Mowbray, 

 however, states that he has seen morays strangle 

 themselves when caught with strong tackle. 



PORPOISES AT SEA. 



Bjl C. H. TOWNSEND. 



THE two small photographs reproduced in 

 tins Bulletin, showing porpoises racing 

 under the bows of steamers are interest- 

 ing in spite of their imperfections. The one 

 made by Mr. Greenlee shows a porpoise with a 

 shark sucker (Kemora) attached to each side 

 of its tail, while the one by Mr. Chapman Grant 

 shows, althougli very dimly, a small baby por- 

 poise racing close beside its mother. Mr. Grant 



