EDITORIAL AND GENERAL. 



37i 



Doctor Gill has summarized his stud- 

 ies in an official publication just issued 

 by the Smithsonian Institution, of 

 which the Museum is a branch. 



Although the name devil-fish has of- 

 ten been applied to different species of 

 cuttle-fish, with their eight long wavy 

 arms, to a kind of shark, and also in 

 California to a gray whale, the giant 

 fish best known as such is technically 

 called the great ray. 



The devil-fish, or great ray, is flat, 

 said to be sometimes 30 feet across, 

 with two great supple arms or head-fins 

 shaped somewhat like elephants' tusks 

 protruding from the front of its head. 

 Although many thrilling tales of ad- 

 venture with this fish have from time 

 to time found their way into print, 

 there is not yet on record an authori- 

 tative report of a devil-fish having ever 

 eaten a human being. 



"The food of the devil-fishes," says 

 Doctor Gill, "so far from being large 

 animals and occasionally a man or so, 

 as has been alleged, appears to be 

 chiefly the small crabs, shrimps and 

 other crustaceans, and young or small 



THE DEVIL-FISH. 

 From a photograph. 



fishes, which swarm in certain places 

 near the surface of the water. Rarely 

 does one prey on large fishes." 



The devil-fishes are inhabitants of 

 warm-water seas and as a rule do not 

 venture from the shore very far out 

 on the high seas. Once in a while one 



is seen as far north as New York or 

 another in the Mediterranean. In 

 United States waters they have been 

 more frequently reported from South 

 Carolina and the Gulf States and from 

 Lower California. They often swim in 

 schools, or shoals, and have a curious 

 habit of turning somersaults near the 

 surface, sometimes leaping as high as 

 ten feet out of the water and churning 

 the sea into foam. If the devil-fishes 

 could live and move in the air, in their 

 mode of progression, they would pro- 

 bably be said to fly, for a sort of sub- 

 marine flight is really what is accom- 

 plished. It is by flaps of the long 

 wing-like fins that they speed them- 

 selves along. 



A naturalist who observed devil- 

 fishes in action, says that he thought 

 no more diabolical creature could be 

 imagined. They resembled enormous 

 bats, and in following one another 

 around in a circle, raised the outer tip 

 of one of the long wing-like fins high 

 out of the water in a graceful curve, 

 the other being deeply submerged. 

 They might be seen now gliding down 

 with a flying motion of the wings ; 

 sweeping, gyrating upward with a 

 twisting vertical motion marvelous in 

 its perfect grace ; now they flashed 

 white, again black, so that one would 

 say they were rolling over and over, 

 turning somersaults. 



While swimming along the two 

 great arms or feelers of the devil-fish 

 are whirled about in constant motion 

 like the tentacles of a squid. When 

 these tentacles come in contact with 

 anything they close upon it. It is gen- 

 erally believed that this clasping, al- 

 though at times doing considerable 

 harm to fishermen and their boats, is 

 iargtly automatic, and that upon the 

 whole the devil-fish is a timid, rather 

 than a fighting animal. 



It is hard to believe, however, that 

 the devil-fish is always timid, when it 

 has been known "to weigh a ship's 

 anchor, and run with the vessel a 

 league or two, and bring her back, 

 against tide, to almost the same place," 

 nor can the devil-fish generally be said 

 to be so accommodating. Neverthe- 

 less, running off with vessels is not 

 an infrequent occurrence in connection 



