806 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN. 



PORTO RICO HAWKSBII 



Dick (Iridio birittatus) with the closely related 

 and gorgeously colored Blue-Head (Chlorich- 

 th'ys bifasciatus) , all of which have been exhib- 

 ited in former years, as well as the Kelpfish 

 (Iridio meyeri) and Rosefish (Iridio garnoti) 

 which arc here for the first time. 



All of these fishes have the peculiar and inter- 

 esting habit of secreting themselves at night 

 either in crannies in the rock-work or by bury- 

 ing themselves in the loose gravel in the bottom 

 of the tank, so that the tank which is rendered 

 lively all day by their active forms and striking 

 colors becomes at nightfall apparently entirely 

 deserted. When frightened or disturbed during 

 the day they secrete themselves in the same man- 

 ner. .Mr. Mowbray, who collected them, in- 

 forms us that this is their custom in their natural 

 habitat where they bury themselves in the loose 

 coral sand. In adaptation to this habit the 

 body is lanceolate in form, the head pointed and 

 the fins low. It is also interesting to note that 

 this secreting habit is regulated by such a con- 

 stitutional periodicity that it is not affected by 

 throwing on artificial light, as they rarely ap- 

 pear after nightfall even when the tank is il- 

 luminated by strong electric light. 



The other new Bermuda fish, known locally 

 in the Bermudas as the Butter Hamlet, is a 

 Vaca (Ili/poplrctrus puella), belonging to the 

 family Serranidae or Sea-basses. It is prob- 

 ably only a color variety of H. unicolor, which 

 is known to possess an enormous range of color 

 variation. R. C. O. 



KEY WEST RECORD TURTLES. 



THE Aquarium has long had a standing or- 

 der with a Key West dealer to procure the 

 first realh' large green turtle that should 

 c ome to market, but it was not until July of 

 this year when the writer was in Key West col- 

 lecting tropical fishes for the Aquarium that the 



desired specimen came. Two negro fishermen 

 found a pair mating in the water and struck 

 both with spears, but the male which was the 

 smaller of the two made his escape by breaking 

 away. The female was captured however, and 

 being too large to spansail, her flippers were 

 securely tied together and she was brought to 

 port resting on her back. In spansailing a tur- 

 tle a small hole is punched through the gristle 

 near the end of the flippers which are then tied, 

 a fore to a hind of the same side or diagonally. 

 This is by far the most merciful way to carry 

 turtles and indeed the only practical one, for if 

 the flippers are left free they will be frayed by 

 the turtle slapping everything within reach in 

 its efforts to turn over and it will also injure 

 nearby turtles. When carried right side up a 

 large turtle will soon smother to death as its 

 whole weight presses on the flexible plastron 

 and breathing becomes impossible. The only 

 objection to carrying a turtle on its back is that 

 in a large specimen the eyes protrude somewhat, 

 but if kept moist they remain uninjured when 

 the turtle is righted. A bandage around the 

 head answers the same purpose. 



This specimen attracted much attention the 

 first day while it lay on the dock over the tur- 

 tle crawl of the unique turtle-soup cannery at 

 Key West. It was agreed that this was the 

 largest green turtle that had been taken for 

 eighteen or twenty years and that although some 

 of the turtles of the olden time had been some- 

 what longer none had ever been seen that was 

 so thick through. 



GIANT GREEN TURT 



