Fishes of the Western North Atlantic 359 



the other hand, it has been reported as deep as 6—20 fathoms; and some may summer 

 where the depth is as great as 20—30 fathoms, if reports of their occurrence on Georges 

 Bank are well founded. 



Little is known of its movements between the dates of its autumnal disappearance 

 from the bays and inshore waters and of its reappearance in early summer. There is 

 no evidence of autumnal incursions by it along the coasts of Maryland, Virginia, or 

 North Carolina; the fact that one was trawled off Cape Hatteras in February »* suggests 

 that it simply withdraws offshore into somewhat deeper waters at the onset of autumnal 

 cooling to spend a quiescent winter on the bottom. 



Numerical Abundance. Sometimes as many as 8 — 10 are taken in one lift of a pound 

 net during July and August in Vineyard Sound and Buzzards Bay near Woods Hole; 

 12—15 have often been on display simultaneously in the large aquarium of the U. S. 

 Fish and Wildlife Service Station at Woods Hole. We estimate that the total catch 

 during ordinary summers by the pound nets (9—12) that operate in that vicinity is at 

 least 400—500 specimens, and reports indicate a catch of the same order of magnitude 

 along the outer coast of Rhode Island. However, the stock appears to vary widely in 

 abundance from year to year and over periods of years. Although information is not 

 sufficient to outline these fluctuations in detail, there seems to have been a period of 

 abundance from eastern New England to New Jersey during the middle third of the 

 19th century, followed by a period of scarcity during the last part of the century. In 

 New Jersey waters an upswing appears to have occurred during the few years fol- 

 lowing 1900, when 39 were taken in one seine haul near Cape May.*' But a decrease 

 was recorded in 1 907 following a cold spring.** And Z). centroura was so uncommon 

 in the immediate vicinity of New York in 1921 that the capture of two specimens 

 seemed worth reporting.*' But by 1928 it was so plentiful again along the mid-New 

 Jersey coast that large ones were hooked every day in the vicinity of Barnegat through 

 late summer until mid-September.** 



Relationship to Man. No regular commercial use is made of D. centroura at present 

 along the Atlantic Coast of the United States, although some caught on the New Jersey 

 Coast were used earlier as fertilizer. Being so large, with tail spines sometimes as much 

 as five inches long, they are extremely dangerous to handle. The wounds they can 

 inflict have been greatly dreaded for a century or more, and therefore it has been com- 

 mon practice to chop off their tails at once when caught and thus render them harmless. 



Range. Coastal waters of the western North Atlantic from Georges Bank and Cape 

 Cod to Chesapeake Bay, to Cape Hatteras, possibly to Florida. It is represented in 

 Uruguayan waters by a form so closely allied that no clear-cut differences from the 

 northern D. centroura appear in the published accounts and illustrations of it.*^ 



84. This specimen, 35 inches wide, was taken by the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service vessel Albatross III in Lat. 34°38' 

 N, Long. 75°58' W, in 20 fathoms, February 19, 1950 (Harv. Mus. Comp. Zool., No. 37058). 



85. Fowler, Rep. N.J. Mus. (1905), 1906: 76. 86. Fowler, Rep. N.J. Mus. (1907), 1908: 131. 



87. Townsend and Nichols, Copeia, 91, 1921: 10. 88. Fowler, Proc. Acad. nat. Sci. Philad., 80, 1929: 608. 



89. Devincenzi, Rev. chil. Hist, nat., 29, 1925: 173, 174, pi. 4, fig. i-i"; An. Mus. Hist. nat. Montevideo, (2) 2, 1926: 



204; Devincenzi and Barattini, An. Mus. Hist. nat. Montevideo, Suppl. Album Ictiol., 1926: pi. 5, fig. 4; Reiter, 



Sports Afield, (6) 122, 1949: 23. 



