156 SMITHSONIAN MISCE;lLANEOUS C0LLE:CTI0NS VOL. 52 



Sea-bat was found by Holder to be in use in the same locality as 

 Vampire. When the negro Paublo exclaimed "Sea Vampa, sure," 

 the Seminole chief in the same boat corroborated his identification 

 rather than contradicted by exclaiming-, "Sea-bat. . . . They 



The Devil-fish. After a photograph/ 



^ The iconography of the Devil-fish is very defective and the figures herewith 

 given are merely provisional. The plate first given by Jordan and Evermann 

 (1900), later reproduced by Fowler (1906), Hugh Smith (1907) and others, is 

 quite inaccurate so far as the tail is concerned. Instead of the tail being much 

 longer than the body, as therein represented, it is only about 6/10 as long. 

 Elliott (p. loi) especially criticized De Kay's "characteristic, viz., tail longer 

 than the body," and affirmed "that the length of the tail is, to that of the body, 

 as six to ten." He had examined "almost twenty individuals." The illustra- 

 tion cited was drawn in Dec, 1894, but the present writer was long unable to 

 learn what was the basis of the figure. He finally traced it to De Kay, who 

 published a composite figure based on Mitchill's and Lesueur's plates. There 

 is no specimen of the Devil-fish in the National Museum. The figures here 

 presented are (i) the old one with the tail modified to suit photographs and 

 Elliott's description ; (2) one drawn after the former outline with the under 

 surface represented from a photographic illustration in Holder's work, and 

 (3) a reproduction of a photograph of a fish caught in 1869 or 1870, during a 

 cruise in the Pacific of a revenue cutter (Captain Freeman commanding). The 

 last was taken while the fish was suspended from a tripod and the drooping 

 fins may have been partly at least due to the suspension. That fish was about 

 13 feet wide. The photograph is very obscure behind and the reproduction 

 consequently is unreliable, as are the other figures. Seven photographs or 

 reproductions are at hand, but all are too obscure behind for guidance. A 

 good one is extremely desirable as are also exact data as to relative propor- 

 tions and weight. All published are deficient. A special article on the subject 

 will follow. 



