Fishes of the Western North Atlantic 511 



or diving to the bottom to resist by sheer weight."^ Despite their great size, Mantas 

 are wholly inoftensive unless attacked. One might damage or capsize a boat in its strug- 

 gles to escape or might accidentally grasp between its cephalic fins a fisherman unlucky 

 enough to fall overboard directly in front of it. The old tale that they devour pearl 

 divers, having first clasped them between the cephalic fins or enveloped them with the 

 pectorals, is without foundation. 



Range. It will not be possible to define the geographic range oi Manta birostris \xnt\\ 

 we know the specific relationship between Manta of the Atlantic and the representatives 

 of the genus in other oceans (see discussion, p. 502). If M. biroslris is identical with 

 these, its range corresponds to that of the genus Manta, as stated on p. 501. However, 

 if the Atlantic form is distinct from those of the Indo-Pacific, the range of the species 

 M. birostris, as now known, would include the western side of the Atlantic from middle 

 Brazil to the Carolinas, accidentally to southern New England and Georges Bank, and 

 seaward to Bermuda; Madeira; and tropical West Africa, whence a specimen has been 

 reported recently, its identity evident from a photograph that shows clearly the terminal 

 position of the mouth. i«* 



Occurrence in the Western Atlantic. Sightings or captures of this large Ray have 

 attracted less attention in the public press, in sportsman's periodicals, and in scientific 

 literature than might have been expected, perhaps because it is pursued by so few per- 

 sons and because it is so large that few specimens are to be found in the collections of 

 museums. It has been reported reliably from: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; French Guiana,^*' 

 British Guiana, Venezuela;"^ Trinidad, the Grenadines, Barbados, Haiti, Jamaica, and 

 the Caribbean in general; the north coast of Cuba"* and the Gulf Stream; the Bahamas; 

 various localities along the west and east coasts of Florida; the Gulf of Mexico, including 

 the northern side off the mouth of the Mississippi; Savannah, Georgia; and Bermuda. 

 At intervals it visits the coastal waters of South Carolina in numbers, as in the forties 

 and fifties of the last century, when a number of them were harpooned in Charleston 

 Harbor, and near Beaufort, South Carolina.^"* But this appears to have represented an 

 unusual dispersal of Mantas northward, for we are informed ^'^ that it is now many 

 years since one has been seen in these waters, though watch has been kept for them 

 there. The few records of it farther to the northward are not only spread over a long 

 period of time but are based on odd specimens only: off Cape Lookout and off Charlotte 

 Harbor, North Carolina ;i" off the mouth of Delaware Bay;"^ off New Jersey ;i'* near 



165. Norman and Fraser, Giant Fishes, 1937: 83. 



166. Anon. (Notes Afric, 57, 1948: pi. not numbered). The specimen, when lying on the beach, appears to have been 

 12-14 f^st wide by comparison with the height of men standing beside it. 



167. Gallus, Tableau Cayenne Guiane Franc, 1792: 132 (not seen). 



168. Gosse, The Ocean, 1846: 193-194; Rohl, Fauna Descript. Venezuela, 1942: 310. 



169. Luis Howell-Rivero informs us that it is "commonly harpooned around Cuba and from Jamaica." 



170. Elliott, Carolina Sports, 1846, 1859; Holmes, Proc. Elliott Soc. nat. Hist., i, 1859: 39. 



171. By E. Milby Burton, Director of the Charleston Museum, South Carolina. 



172. It is probable that early reports of Manta from North Carolina were based chiefly on the Lesser Devil Ray, Mobula. 



173. One in 1822 (Lesueur, J. Acad. nat. Sci. Philad., 4, 1824: n8) and a second in 1823 (Mitchill, Ann. New York 

 Lye, I, 1824: 23). 



174. Two specimens (Fowler, Science, N. S. 17, 1903: 594) and our Study Material, p. 502. 



