1913] Some Beaufort, E". C, Fishes 163 



sented 4 to the United States National Museum, 2 to the Ameri- 

 can Museum of Natural History (in addition to the 2 sent in 

 1910), 2 to the British Museum (Natural History), 2 to Mu- 

 seum D'Histoire Xaturelle, Paris, and one to the writer. 



Jordan and Evermann (1896) say that the Mantid rays are 

 ovoviparous, but Coles on July 14, 1911, brought to the 

 writer at the Beaufort laboratory a preserved uterus with the 

 attached ovary (together with a yellow yolk which had escaped 

 during the operation of excision) taken from a female Mohula 

 a week previous. The egg on examination unfortunately, as has 

 often been the writer's experience in dealing with such, had lost 

 its embryo. The greatly swollen uterus measured externally 

 8I4 inches around, and 10% long while the length of the tube 

 connecting it with the cloaca was 3% inches. The walls of the 

 uterus at their thickest part measured 14, and at the thinnest 

 ^ inch, and were very villous, as much so as any other ray here- 

 tofore examined. The villi measured from l/^ to % of an inch 

 long and the wall of the uterus to which they were attached was 

 composed of long palisade-like structures of which they seemed 

 to be outgrowths. 



Ophichthus ocellatus (LeSueur). 



Spotted Snake Eel. 



The first reported capture of this eel in North Carolina 

 waters was that by Coles at Cape Lookout in April of the year 

 1910 while down on a short expedition. He reports that this 

 fish has the interesting habit of swimming or rather drifting in 

 a vertical position. So far as the writer knows this West Indian 

 eel has never before been caught north of Florida. 



Lycodontis moringa (Cuvier). 



Common Spotted Moray; Hamlet. 



The first moray ever recorded at Beaufort was Lycodontis 

 ocellatus taken off the inner north-west corner of Bird Shoal in 

 eel-grass by George Bean and the writer on August 20, 1903. 

 Another one was caught by other parties the following year. 

 Since this latter time no moray had been taken in Beaufort 

 waters until July, 1911, when Coles procured a small one from 



