NO. 1816 



STORY OF the; devil-fish — GILI. 



16 = 



IV 



In some warm sea a fortunate observer may find perhaps a Devil- 

 fish or a couple swimming on or near the surface ; not rarely a 

 school, or "shoal," of them. (Shoal is the word used by the Hon. 

 William Elliott in his earliest full treatise on them as subjects of 

 sport. ^) Frequently they project themselves in the air to a -consid- 

 erable height and for some distance. Their progression indeed is 

 rather of the nature of flight than swimming, and has been likened 

 to "the flight of a bird of prey"; it is by flaps of the wing-like pec- 

 toral fins and not at all by the tail, as in Sharks and fishes generally. 





Fig. 52. — Eagle-rays in motion. After Mangelsdorff. (Natiir und Haus, 



8, 1900, p. 255.) 



In fact, the progression of the Devil-fishes is quite similar to that 

 of their near relatives, the Eagle-rays, which have been portrayed 

 from life by Mangelsdorff. Meanwhile, according to Holder, their 

 caropteres, or head-fins, otherwise called arms, feelers, claspers, or 

 horns, are "in constant motion, being whirled about like the tentacles 

 of a squid." 



Mr. Hector von Beyer, of the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries, informed 

 Dr. Hugh Smith^ that he had "observed the animal in the Gulf of 



^ Carolina Sports by land and water, including incidents of Devil-fishing, 

 [etc.]. Charleston, 1846. (2d edition, N. Y., 1850; 3d edition, N. Y., 1859.) 

 " The Fishes of North Carolina, 1907, p. 48. 



