338 



SCIENCE 



[Vol. liV, No. 1422 



distribution of each species. This work can 

 be performed without any expensive equip- 

 ment; good judgment and hard work in the 

 field are the main requirements. 



There is pressing need that the work of 

 describing the biotie areas and habitats of the 

 world should be speedily done. Through the 

 influence of man's industrial activities the 

 natural conditions of the world are rapidly 

 passing, and in our more settled districts it 

 is now difficult or impossible to find even 

 small areas of the original habitats. It is im- 

 portant to determine quickly the habitat 

 preferences of the native plants and animals, 

 for these can surely be determined only in 

 natural habitats. With the changes due to the 

 presence of man numerous species have been 

 introduced, others have greatly changed their 

 abundance, and the whole balance of nature 

 has been upset. It behooves us to record all 

 we can of natural habitats and habitat prefer- 

 ences before it is too late. 



L. R. Dice 

 Museum op Zoology, 



University of Michigan 



THE MOST NORTHERLY RECORD 

 OF THE CAPTURE IN ATLANTIC 

 WATERS OF THE UNITED STATES 

 OF THE GIANT RAY, MANTA 

 BIROSTRIS 

 Like many other ichthyologists I have long 

 known that Manta drifts north with the Gulf 

 Stream as far as Cape Lookout, North Caro- 

 lina, where it is sometimes found in the Bight 

 of the Cape or playing over the shoals which 

 extend some 15 or 20 miles out to sea. Further- 

 more, I have presumed that it occasionally 

 drifted further north, but until my attention 

 was called to the matter recently I did not 

 know that any scientific records of its occur- 

 rence north of that point had ever been made. 

 However, as a matter of fact the earliest rec- 

 ord of the oecurrenee of this gigantic ray in 

 oui' waters is found in Lawson's voyage to 



1 Lawson, John, ' ' A new voyage to Carolina ; 

 containing the . . . natural history of that coun- 

 try, etc." London, 1709. 



North Carolina (1709)^. Lawson describes 

 the "divil-flsh" as shaped like a "scate," of 

 great size, and having a very large pair of 

 horns on its head. He notes its occurrence in 

 the inlets of the great sandy bars separating 

 the ocean from the sounds. 



The next notice is found in Marc Catesby's 

 "Account of Carolina and the Bahama 

 Islands," an appendix to Vol. 2 of his "Natu- 

 ral History of Carolina, Florida, and the Ba- 

 hama Islands, etc." 2 vols. London, 1743. 

 Speaking of "Diabolus marinus, the devil-fish," 

 which he says is a great ray having two horns 

 on its head, he describes how one came afoul 

 of the cable of "a sloop of 80 tons," in the 

 harbor of Charleston, South Carolina, and 

 dragged it about the harbor. 



The first scientific record of the capture of 

 the fish, with a careful description and excel- 

 lent figures dates in the year 1824. In August, 



1822, there was captured near the mouth of the 

 Delaware Bay a specimen which was brought 

 to Philadelphia and secured for the Academy 

 of Natural Sciences. It was figured and de- 

 scribed by LeSueur- in 1824. It was 15 or 

 16 feet wide, and 7 feet, 9 or 10 inches long 

 wiithout the tail (which LeSueur says was 

 slightly over 8 feet long) and had a mouth 

 2% feet wide. He described it under the name 

 Cephalopterus, head-winged. 



It seems to have been a matter of general 

 knowledge at that time among the fishermen 

 of Capes May and Henlopen that this gigantic 

 ray occurred in the ocean ofE that region. At 

 any rate, it is recorded that late in August, 



1823, a crew of fishermen set out to capture 

 one of the fishes, and that on September 9 

 they brought a specimen to New York. Here 

 it was measured and described by Dr. S. L. 

 Mitchill who published his account in the same 

 year with LeSueur, 1824.^ It was a record 



- Le Sueur, Description of several species of 

 the genus Eaia, of North America, Journal Acad- 

 emy Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, 1824, Vol. 4, 

 pp. 115-121, 4 figs. 



3 MitchiO, S. L., Description of a new and 

 gigantic species of the genus Cephalopterus of 

 Dumeril, Annals Lyceum Natural History, New 

 York, 1824, Vol. 6, pp. 23-29, 2 figs. 



