l8o SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 52 



ous cases have occurred of death resulting to divers , as well as 

 bathers from encounters with the Devil-fish, or Manta, as the men 

 call it.^ On the other hand, the carcasses of many that are killed are 

 used for bait for other fishes. 



^ An accomplished naturalist of the second quarter of the last century, Col. 

 Hamilton Smith, "once witnessed the destruction of a soldier by one of these 

 Cephalopteri off Trinidad. It was supposed that the soldier, being a good 

 swimmer, was attempting to desert from the ship, which lay at anchor in the 

 entrance of the Boca del Toro. * * * The Colonel is positive as to this 

 fish being a Cephalopterus." The full account is given in Griffith's edition of 

 Cuvier's Animal Kingdom ("The Class Pisces," p. 654). The evidence is 

 very unsatisfactory. 



