1913] Some Beaufort, K C, Fishes 161 



this raj falls into line with all other Beaufort forms known to 

 the writer in being viviparous. 



In July, 1908, the writer took at the Narrows of Newport 

 River a brown ray whose length was 39 inches from the tip of 

 nose to root of tail, the total length ( the tail had plainly suffered 

 amputation near the tip) 75 inches. Because of the presence 

 of long horny prickles on the hinder part of the median line of 

 the body and on the base of the tail, and of the structure and 

 length of the tail, this ray was provisionally identified as 

 Dasyatis sahina. This identification needs confirmation. The 

 ray may have been Dasyatis hastata as above. 'No other speci- 

 men has since been seen. 



Mobula olfersi (Miiller & Henle). 



Small Devil-Fish. 



Of all Coles' captures, however, none has aroused so much in- 

 terest as that of the Mantid ray, Mohula olfersi. This all at first 

 mistook for Manta birostris. Coles brought to the laboratory, 

 on the last day of the writer's stay at Beaufort in 1910, a head 

 preserved in formalin. It was examined hastily and pronounced 

 Manta hirostris. So said all the other students of fishes to 

 whom it was submitted. Mr. Coles, however, contended all 

 the time that it was not Manta. At the meeting of the Ameri- 

 can Fisheries Society in New York, Sept. 27-29, 1910, 2 speci- 

 mens, a male and a female, now in the American Museum, were 

 submitted to the inspection of that N^estor among ichthyologists. 

 Dr. Theodore Gill, who at once unhesitatingly said that they 

 were not Manta hirostris, and suggested that they were Mohula 

 olfersi as first described by Miiller and Henle. This diagnosis 

 was confirmed and they were so named in Coles' paper. This 

 is indeed a great find. Jordan and Evermann say of the iden- 

 tical or closely related form, Aodon liypostomus, "This species, 

 described from Jamica, is very imperfectly known, and may be 

 the same as Aodon olfersi (M. & H.), afterwards described 

 from Brazil." Coles' specimens are the first taken in ISTorth 

 American waters. 



The teeth of Mohula:^ are very small and somewhat shark-like 



* The teeth of Coles' specimens have been studied and reported on by Pelle- 

 grin (1912). See literature cited. 



