THE AMERICAN NATURALIST [Vol.XLIV 



flex action, is by no means unusual, the writer having 

 noticed it on several occasions in both butterfly and sting 

 rays. Not infrequently, however, the young are born 

 while the mother is being killed, the pain causing spas- 

 modic contractions of the muscles of the uterus. 



In this connection it is interesting to read in Schoin- 

 burgk 4 as follows: 



I have frequently observed that the rays, no doubt in consequence 

 of the anguish when secured and transfixed by the poles (harpoons), 



A similar occurrence was once noticed by Dr. S. West- 

 ray Battle, of Asheville, N. C, who related it to the 

 writer. The young slip very readily out through the gen- 

 ital orifice, and on several occasions (July 29, 1902, for 

 the first time), I have delivered the mother of her young 

 by manipulating her abdomen in the manner familiar to 

 spawn takers. The young are rolled up in tubes, one 

 pectoral fin forming the inner lining of the tube, the 

 other the outer; i. e., the fish is rolled up like a sheet of 

 paper beginning at the edge of one pectoral. It is inter- 

 esting to note that the teeth of these young rays were 

 hard and fit for service, and the spines able to produce a 

 wound. 



On May 29 I found on Fort Macon Beach, about one 

 half mile south of the concrete breakwater, a dead and 

 half dried specimen of Raja eglanteria, called " brier 

 ray" because of the curved prickles with which its dorsal 

 region and especially its tail are covered. This is the 

 ' 1 clear-nose" of the fishermen, and the dried specimen 

 in question fully justified the appellation, since the mem- 

 brane joining the rostral cartilages to the pectoral fins 

 was translucent almost to the point of transparency. 

 The fontanelles of the skull, especially the anterior one, 

 were clearly marked out. The total length of this speci- 

 men from tip of nose to broken-ofT end of the tail was 19 

 inches: the pectorals were rolled up and so hard that it 

 was impracticable to ascertain the width of the fish. 



This is the only specimen of the ray which the writer 



4 Schombuigk, R. H., "Fishes of Guiana," Part II., in Jardine's 

 Naturalist's Library, 1843. 



