ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 



1547 



esting for several hours. In order to keep the 

 record of the brush going without waste of time, 

 the artist keeps two or three species under ob- 

 servation at once, using a separate canvas for 

 each. When one species refuses to perform, 

 another in an adjoining tank may be more ac- 

 commodating, and the artist has merely to turn 

 to the other easel. 



In this way the finny masqueraders are all 

 caught eventually at their tricks. Sixteen 

 species have already been painted in the vari- 

 ous transformations which they are capable of 

 making, in one case eight changes in color being 

 shown. 



It is proposed that these pictures be pub- 

 lished in color by the Zoological Society, to- 

 gether with the results of recent observations 

 on the color changes of fishes. — C. H. T. 



parts. The color is merely the result of some 

 unusual condition of the shell pigments. 



It was presented by Mr. Edward B. Tuthill, 

 of Montauk, Long Island, and presumablj^ was 

 captured in that region. — C. H. T. 



A BLUE LOBSTER 



THE Aquarium has a specimen of the 

 American lobster which is so remarkable 

 that it would attract instant attention 

 anywhere. It is not only a giant among its 

 kind, weighing over thirteen pounds, but has a 

 brilliant blue color. 



It has been intimated that the color of our 

 specimen is a forgery, but the lobster was re- 

 ceived alive on June 30, and has been seen b}^ 

 thousands of persons. When it died an artist 

 was engaged to make a painting of it before 

 any change in color could take place. It has 

 been handsomely mounted, and whatever color 

 was lost in the process has been restored from 

 the original color sketch. 



This lobster as mounted, with the large claw- 

 in a curved position, is twentj^-nine inches long, 

 and must have been at least thirty-two inches 

 before mounting. It will be exhibited beside 

 another mounted lobster which died in the 

 Aquarium, having a length of thirty-eight 

 inches and a weight of twenty-one pounds. 



Incidentally the largest known lobster, 

 weighing thirty-four pounds and now in the 

 American Museum of Natural History, died in 

 the Aquarium. 



Blue lobsters have long been known, but are 

 of quite rare occurrence. There are a few de- 

 scriptions of such specimens in the literature of 

 the lobster, and the Aquarium has received blue 

 lobsters at different times, some of them sent 

 from distant points as great rarities. 



Our large blue lobster is, like most of those 

 described, of an intense indigo blue above, shad- 

 ing; into a clear blue on the sides and under 



SOME NOTES ON THE WEAKFISH 



(^Cynoscion regalis) 

 By W. I. DeNyse 



THE weakfish is one of our most common 

 food fishes, and is caught in far greater 

 quantities than the bluefish. It makes its 

 appearance in this locality about the first week 

 in May and remains until the beginning of No- 

 vember, when it leaves for the south. It ar- 

 rives in scattered numbers, only a few being 

 caught by the fishermen until about the first of 

 June, when large catches are made and this con- 

 tinues until the fish migrate in the fall, although 

 there may be weeks of poor fishing between 

 their coming and departure, owing to weather 

 conditions. 



In its feeding habits, the weakfish is nearly 

 as voracious as the bluefish, and the larger 

 specimens, weighing from fifteen to twenty-five 

 pounds, are very destructive to young fish. 

 They even will eat the young of their own spe- 

 cies, a trait that I never have known the blue- 

 fish to display. Verj^ large specimens seldom 

 frequent the shallow water bays, though those 

 of small and medium size do so. They enter 

 the bays with the flood-tide in search of food, 

 and swim among the beds of eel grass, feeding 

 on shrimps, small fish, worms and small crabs, 

 ^lany blue crabs just out of the shell and in 

 the soft stage, are eaten by them. Often, I 

 have found the stomachs of medium-sized weak- 

 fish to contain shrimp, small blue crabs, rock 

 crabs, minnows, spearing, tomcod, blackfish, sea 

 bass, striped bass, mullet, herring, menhaden, 

 bluefish, anchovies, sand lance, marine worms 

 of different species, and on several occasions, 

 young weakfish. 



Though the weakfish is quite as much of a 

 gormand as the bluefish, I never have seen it 

 destroy fish after its appetite had been satiated 

 as the bluefish do. It is a well-known fact that 

 when bluefish have eaten till they can hold no 

 more, they will swim among schools of small 

 fisli and cut them to pieces with their strong 

 teeth and jaws. 



In the fall of 1886, I had the pleasure of 

 seeing schools of large weakfish on the surface 

 of the water off the Sandy Hook Light Ship, so 



