646 
ZOOLOGICAL 
SWELLFISH INFLATING OUT OF THE WATER. 
The pufling practice is quite as common in 
the very young fishes as it is in the adults. 
Pufters are not used for food and the flesh of 
some species is known to be poisonous. Ordi- 
nary teeth are lacking in the puffers, the jaws 
being armed with heavy parrot-like beaks. 
They are rather active in the tanks, the young 
especially so. They often bury themselves in 
the sandy bottoms of the exhibition tank with 
only the eyes exposed. At such times they are 
pale and colorless and would scarcely be no- 
ticed in the sand where they lie, if it were not 
for the protruding eyes. On being disturbed 
the whole upper surface of the fish instantly be- 
comes dark, mottled with still darker spots, 
while along the sides of the body six or eight 
vertical blotches of black appear. 
The swellfish attains a length of about eight 
inches, and spawns in this region early in June. 
A month later the young become exceedingly 
abundant along sandy beaches. It is a migra- 
tory species and departs on the appearance of 
cold weather. 
ITEMS OF INTEREST. 
Aquarium Tablet.—This tablet was placed on 
the Aquarium building on September 25, 1909, 
as a historical contribution of the New York 
Zoological Society to the Hudson-Fulton Cele- 
bration. 
American Fisheries Society—The Fortieth 
Anniversary Meeting of the American Fisheries 
Society will be held at the New York Aquarium, 
September 27, 1910. Everything possible is 
being done to make this a notable gathering of 
men who are interested in fish culture and com- 
mercial fisheries. 
Skylights—Vhe work of placing several new 
skylights in the Aquarium is now being com- 
pleted, and the effect is apparent in a decidedly 
SOCIETY 
BULLETIN. 
better illumination of the main floor exhibits. 
The collection of seals, sea turtles, alligators, 
fresh-water turtles and invertebrates in small 
aquaria can be viewed to much better advantage. 
Black Sea Bass.—Mr. M. G. Foster, a mem- 
ber of the Zoological Society, has presented to 
the Aquarium a large mounted specimen of the 
black sea bass, (Stereolepis gigas), taken by 
himself at Santa Catalina Island, California. 
The fish is nearly six feet long, weighed 250 
pounds when captured, and was landed in the 
boat in forty-five minutes after being hooked. 
This is one of the very large sea fishes often 
caught with rod and reel in that locality. Speci- 
mens have been taken weighing 700 pounds. 
It is an important food fish, common along the 
southern coast of California. 
The Aquarium Society.—Sometime ago “The 
Aquarium Society” was granted permission to 
use the laboratory of the New York Aquarium 
for its monthly meetings. This Society is made 
up of persons interested in the keeping of small 
aquaria, and several of the members have con- 
tributed interesting fresh water forms to our 
collections. At the meeting held January 28, 
1910, Dr. Louis Hussakof of the Museum of 
Natural History gave an illustrated account of 
the Aquarium at Naples. Teachers in the pub- 
lic schools who are interested in the subject of 
school aquaria have been invited to attend the 
meetings. 
Correspondence.—The New York Aquarium, 
like other museums, carries on a considerable 
correspondence with the public at large. Occa- 
sionally a letter is received which is too rich to 
be lost in the files. 
A letter received from Ulster Co., New York, 
says: “The dam on my place is broke and the 
water is all run out. We have fix the dam and 
want some more fish. Pleas attend to this at 
once.” 
Another letter from nearer home, inquires: 
“Are you troubled with rats? If so my method 
of killing will clean them out.” 
The answer was: ‘““The Aquarium has plenty 
of rats but we do our own killing or rather the 
alligators do it. If you care to empty your 
traps into our alligator pool you will see rats 
killed with neatness and despatch and nothing 
left for the garbage can.” 
A Large Lobster—On February 22, 1910, 
the Aquarium received a lobster weighing six- 
teen pounds, or a pound and a half more than 
the giant lobster received in January, 1908, and 
