400 THE AMEBIC AN NATURALIST [Vol. XLIV 



June 12, and then I was quite sure that I had found a new 

 species until the director of the laboratory, Mr. Henry D. 

 Aller, positively identified it under the above name. Its 

 width across the utmost reach of the pectorals was 26 

 inches ; length, end of snout to tip of ventrals, 18 inches ; 

 length of tail, root to tip, 40^ inches ; tail with two spines, 

 length over all 56^ inches (tail inserted between bases of 

 ventrals) ; width between eyes 4 inches. 



The most interesting thing about this ray apart from 

 its color is the very unusual structure of its jaws. 

 Whereas, in ordinary rays with pavement teeth, the 

 upper and lower jaws are practically duplicates, in this 

 ray while the upper jaw is of the ordinary shape, the 

 lower is drawn out into a tongue- shaped organ protrud- 

 ing beyond the lips. These would seem to be especially 

 fitted for cracking clams, which dissection proved to con- 

 stitute its chief food. It should be remarked in passing 

 that the jaws of Aetobatus are noticeably smaller than 

 the jaws of an ordinary ray of the same size. 



On July 3 Mr. Russell J. Coles, of Danville, Va., 

 caught in the bight of Cape Lookout and very kindly 

 brought to the laboratory another ray of this species. 

 This was also a female whose measurements were as fol- 

 lows: Width, 23J inches; length, body only, 16 inches 

 tail. .*!.").; inches long and provided with two spines; width 

 between eyes, '.]}> inches. Mr. Coles, notwithstanding his 

 long experience as a fisherman for sharks and rays at 

 Beaufort and Cape Lookout, thought that he too had 

 caught a new species. 



As a further evidence of the scarcity of this ray in the 

 Beaufort region, it may be noticed that the card catalogue 

 of the laboratory has records of but two other specimens. 

 In 1901 some fishermen took on the outer or channel side 

 of Shark Shoal, in the deepest part of Beaufort Harbor 

 an Aetobatus ntuinari whose dimensions were as follows: 

 Width, 4 feet; length, nose to ventrals, 2 feet and 2 

 inches ; tail, 4 feet and 8 inches long ; total length about 6 

 feet and 6 inches (allow for insertion of tail between ven- 

 trals). On August 3, 1909, Mr. C. F. Silvester, of Prince- 



