152 Gudgei — Notes on Some Beaufort, N. 0., Fishes. 



more the bight at Cape Lookout, where his catches were made, forms a 

 natural fish trap for all sorts of rare southern forms carried into it by the 

 set of the Gulf Stream and the steady southerly winds. This is especially 

 true of the shallow water fishes like the rays. 



Before leaving this ray, if might be well to add that Mr. W. H. Shelton 

 of Beaufort gave the writer the tail of a very large spotted sting ray of which 

 unfortunately no measurements had been made. The tail, of which it is 

 plain that the hinder portion was lost by some accident, is 4 feet 3 inches 

 long. It bears 4 spines, and the evidence is rather clear that another has 

 been torn off. The only other caudal appendage of a spotted sting ray 

 comparable to this is the 5-spined one taken at Guam, described and 

 figured by Quoy and Gaimard (isi'4). and deposited in the Museum 

 of Paris. This tail had also suffered amputation and the length of the 

 abbreviated portion is not given, nor is the description of the ray at all 

 full, the drawing having been lost, but on account of the unusual and 

 extraordinary number of spines these authors call it Raja quinqueaculata. 



Nothing definite was known about the mode of reproduction in this 

 ray until Coles published his paper in 1910. He tells us that the young 

 are born, that is, are expelled from the uterus, while the mother is en- 

 gaged in leaping high above the water. This he witnessed twice. His 

 observation definitely proves that it is viviparous, and we may confidently 

 expect on later investigation to find the female rays with villous uteri as 

 in the forms previously described. 



Rhinoptera bonasus (Mitchill). 

 COW-NOSED RAY. 



On July Hi, 1910, the writer took three young rays of this species in one 

 haul at the Narrows. One was a female 20% inches wide, 13^ from 

 snout to end of ventrals, tail 17 inches, length over all 27 inches, weight 

 5 pounds. The second, a male, measured as follows: width 20% inches, 

 length 13, tail only 2\% inches, total length 33 inches. The third, like- 

 wise a male, was 19^ inches over all. The first male had one spine, the 

 second two, and both had very short sexual appendages. 



Since the present writer has taken from the uterus of the mother young 

 V3% inches wide and 8% long (Gudger, 1910), and Bleeker (1852) in the 

 same manner obtained from a Rhinoptera javanica 2 young measuring 

 240'" and 280" ' wide (20 and 20.3 inches), he is led to believe that 

 these rays were certainly not older than two years, and possibly were born 

 not earlier than 1909. 



These observations also show conclusively that the cow-nosed ray is 

 viviparous, like all the other Beaufort rays studied by the writer. Vivi- 

 parity, however, is not effected by means of a yolk-bag placenta, fait by 

 milk secreted by the villous lining of the uterus. 



Manta birostris (Walbaum). 

 DEVIL FISH. 



This goliath of the ray order has been reported from Cape Lookout and 

 for years Coles has kept a close watch for it, but has seen it only once. 



