GiuJgci — Notes on some Beaufort, N. C, Fishes. 99 



never taken one nor heard of one being captured. Furthermore, Coles 

 states that in 11 years' fishing on our coast tliis is his first capture. 



Narcine brasiliensis (< lifers). 

 NUMB-FISH; "SHOCK-FISH." 



In 1909 Coles added this iish to our iehthyological fauna by taking 2 

 specimens at Cape Lookout. In 1910 he captured 11 others, and in 1911 

 4 more. During the present year he obtained 16 specimens, 13 in the 

 bight at Cape Lookout and 3 on the coast some miles south. One of these 

 makes for us a new and unusual record for size, being 17% inches in total 

 length and having a disk 9)4 inches wide. Among these specimens were 

 a number of pregnant femaies whose uteri with the contained eggs were 

 sent to the American Museum. 



Dasytis say (LeSueur). 



STING-KAY; STIXGAREE. 



Although very common I took but one specimen, a female, during my 

 brief stay at Beaufort. Its right ovary and right uterus were non-func- 

 tional. The left ovary was filled with a number of eggs 4-5 mm. in 

 diameter. The left uterus was much swollen, and internally was densely 

 lined with villi the interstices of the bases of which were rilled with a 

 yellow buttery material. This uterus contained 2 rather far advanced 

 embryos whose attached yolk bags were reduced to about the size of .44- 

 caliber bullets. 



The asymmetry of the reproductive organs of this specimen accord with 

 what I have previously noted (1912) on others of this ray. It seems that 

 the organs on the left side only are functional in rays of the genus Dasyatis. 

 So I have found in dozen of specimens young and old of D. say examined 

 at Beaufort, and in 7 specimens (all adult) of D. hastata examined during 

 the summer of 1912 on the outermost of the Florida Keys. Wood-Mason 

 and Alcock (1892) found the like on dissection of 2 females of Trygon 

 (Dasyatis) walga. In speaking of T. (D.) bleekeri, Alcock writes (1892) 

 of three specimens " * * * left side only pregnant; in all the pregnant 

 rays that I have since dissected, where only one oviduct is pregnant it is 

 always the left." Redeke (1898) found the same state of things in Trygon 

 pastinaca, and be reports that according to Schmidt the same is true of 

 T. violaceus (reference not verified). And later still Lonnberg (1902), on 

 dissecting a female Dasybatus margarita from the west coast of Africa, 

 found the left uterus only pregnant. 



On this point Hill (1851), the earliest writer on these subjects known to 

 me, says, " Some of the viviparous Cartilaginous Fishes are fertile only on 

 one side generally the right." This I have found to be true only of the 

 ovaries of the nurse shark, Ginglymostoma cirratum, and of a large tiger 

 shark, Galeocerdo tigrinus, taken in Key West Harbor in July, 11112. 

 However, I have found that in immature bonnet-head sharks, Sphyrna 

 tiburo the right ovary is larger than the left. Redeke (1898) says that 

 this is true of the right ovary of Scyllium, Pristiurus, Mustelus, Galeus, 

 Carcharias, and Sphyrna. 



