The Spotted Eagle Ray. 273 



However, some fish have bands, and on the last day of my stay at Beaufort 

 in 1910 I believe I hit upon the proper explanation. In pulling off some of 

 the skin from the back of a formalin specimen, I found that under the 

 bands in the skin there were distinctly marked-off brown stripes in the 

 flesh. It may be that these two explanations are based on two different 

 manifestations of the same phenomenon, namely that these underlying 

 vessels not only mark off and give rise to the transverse lines, but that after 

 death or in preserved specimens the coloring matter from their liquid 

 contents (perhaps the hemoglobin of blood) soaks out, discoloring the over- 

 lying flesh and skin, thus causing the formation of bands. 



The facts are that in life these lines, stripes, or bands are either wanting 

 or so faint as to be invisible not only to the eye but also to the photographic 

 plate after a long exposure with good light and with a very small diaphragm ; 

 whereas after death, and especially after preservation in formalin, these 

 markings are apt to show up fairly clearly. What effect immersion in 

 alcohol would have, can only be conjectured, but it is quite certain that 

 the specimen from which Jordan and Evermann's figure was drawn had for 

 a considerable time been in alcohol. However, Claude d'Abbeville (1614) 

 says that the whole (upper?) body is covered with black and white lines, 

 and his specimen or specimens would hardly have been other than fresh. 

 But on the other hand Mr. Coles says positively that after examining more 

 than 100 fresh specimens at Cape Lookout he has never yet seen one with 

 transverse bars or bands. 



Before leaving the question of markings, it should be noted that it has 

 been reported by various authors that the hinder edges of the pectorals 

 in A. narinari are margined with white, while by others they are reported 

 to be black. Indeed, the present writer has himself noted both kinds of 

 margins. The explanation for this apparent anomaly seems to be as follows: 

 The fish grows to some extent by additions to the hinder edges of the pec- 

 torals. On these edges the spots form fairly regular rows. Consequently 

 at one stage of development of the fish, the pectorals will be margined with 

 white; a little later, as the fish grows, these white margins form spots which 

 apparently move forward and the margin is found to be black or at any 

 rate darkish. In various specimens all such gradations may be found. 



During the summer of 1913, Mr. Coles took at Cape Lookout two ab- 

 normally colored specimens of A. narinari, the data concerning which he 

 has kindly put at my disposal. The first was an albino female 3 feet 4 

 inches wide, 2 feet 6}/^ inches long snout to ventrals, and 5 feet io3^ inches 

 over all. Swimming in water 3 feet deep, this fish appeared to be perfectly 

 white, but after capture (in a seine) it was seen to be covered with light 

 olive and brownish-green markings, which became plainer as the body was 

 exposed to the air and sun. Description can not do justice to this beauti- 

 ful specimen, which is shown in plate vi, figure 12A. 



On the following day, Mr. Coles took, almost in the same place, another 

 A. narinari, which at first seemed to be totally black, but exposure to the 



