478 REPORT OF THE FOREST, FISH AND GAME COMMISSION. 



that year until 1897 none was observed. In 1897 this fish was comparatively com- 

 mon in Vineyard Sound. During the forenoon of July 24, 22 specimens were taken 

 in a boat from the Fish Commission Station with small dip nets, among the gulf- 

 weed in Vineyard Sound, a few miles from Woods Hole, Mass., and on the same 

 day 28 specimens were secured by a steamer. Probably not less than 100 specimens 

 were taken during the season. Many were kept alive in aquaria for several weeks. 

 Some remained under or around the gulfweed at the surface, some concealed them- 

 selves in algae on the bottom, some hid behind stones and other objects in the 

 aquarium, and some in crevices in rocks. They were quite cannibalistic, one about 

 6 inches long swallowing another nearly 4 inches long, and they frequently bit off 

 the fleshy dermal appendages of their fellows. In August several spawned in the 

 aquarium. The eggs are connected in long bands like those of the Goosefish. On 

 July 17, 1897, 8 specimens of this fish were taken under the gulfweed off Nan- 

 tucket. It is reported that in the summer of 1897 the fish was not uncommon in 

 that region. 



Family OGCOCEPHALIDiE. Batfishes. 



241. Batfish (Pgcocephaliis vespertilio Linnaeus). 



The Batfish is a native of the West Indies, extending northward usually to the 

 Florida Keys, and occasionally to New York. It grows to a length of 12 inches. 



DeKay describes it as the Bat Malthea. He did not have the fish from' the 

 coast of New York, and his description is borrowed from Cuvier and Valenciennes. 

 Dr. Theodore Gill saw a recently-caught example of it in the midsummer of 1854 

 or 1855 at a wharf at the foot of Twenty-seventh street, East River, New Yo^^k. 

 No record of its occurrence was published until January 13, 1899, when the writer 

 mentioned this statement in Science, N. S., Vol. IX, No. 211. 



