194, 
AMERICAN AGtRIOULTURIST 
[May, 
reminds you of ordinary fishes; boys who live near the 
sea-coast will at once say, It looks like an enormous 
Stingeree ,” if they have not been taught to say “Sting- 
Ray”—and in fact it does belong to that division of 
fishes which includes the Rays and the Sharks, which 
■differ from common fishes in many points, but especially 
in not having a regular bony 
skeleton, their frame - work 
being of cartilage in place of 
bones. Our Devil-fish was first 
described in 1823, by Doctor 
Samuel L. Mitchill, a New York 
physician who was an eminent 
naturalist. Some men, who had 
heard that enormous sea crea¬ 
tures had been seen near th e en¬ 
trance of Delaware Bay, fitted 
•out a boat to go and try to cap¬ 
ture some of them. In three 
weeks they came back with a 
monster which they had killed 
after much labor and danger. 
When the animal had been 
brought to the shore, it took 
three yoke of oxen, a horse, and 
the help of 22 men to drag it up 
the beach to dry land! As the 
animal lies in the engraving, 
you can not see its mouth, 
which is an opening near¬ 
ly three feet across. At each 
side of the mouth is what has 
"been called an aim, a feeder, 
■or a feeler; you can see their 
ends at the head of the ani¬ 
mal. They are about two and a 
half feet long, and have a great 
number of joints that allow 
them to move in every direc¬ 
tion. These feelers are con¬ 
stantly in motion; by their use 
the animal catches its food ; 
they can twist around and hold 
fast to substances, and seem 
to be about as useful to this 
water monster as is the trunk to the elephant. The 
upper surface of the Devil-fish is nearly black, and it is 
lighter, even whitish, under the belly. The animal is 
not at all rare along our Southern coasts in summer, and 
is hunted by parties which go out for the purpose ; its 
liver yields a great amount of oil, which is used for vari¬ 
ous purposes, while its flesh is made into a manure. It 
moves through the water by means of a waving move¬ 
ment of its great wings, much as a bird pushes itself 
through the air, and with a speed wonderful for au 
■animal of such size. This huge creature appears 
to have its amuse¬ 
ments: one of these 
is to turn a number 
•of summersets at or 
just below the surface 
of the water ; the other 
is to stick a portion 
•of one of its immense 
wings above the water, 
and wave it back and 
forth with a rapid and 
graceful motion. These 
two habits enable those 
who hunt the creature 
to discover where it is ; 
its presence is some¬ 
times, however, dis¬ 
covered in an unplea¬ 
sant manner by those 
who do not see the 
creature itself. It is 
able to seize very large 
things by itsfeelcrs,and 
when it once takes hold 
of a thing it is very 
slow to let go. Many 
years ago the loud 
cries and screams of 
“murder” were heard in 
the harbor of Charles¬ 
ton, S. C.; these came 
from a negro fisherman, 
who found his fish¬ 
ing-boat and himself going out towards the sea at a most 
Tapid rate ; a Devil-fish had picked up the stone used 
for an anchor, and was going off with it at a quick pace ; 
the poor fellow was rescued before the bar was reached. 
Another case is told of a planter, with a large boat and 
eight oarsmen, who anchored for the night in a creek on 
the Georgia coast; in the night the planter awoke to find 
his boat rushing through the water, and he at once cut 
the rope that held the anchor ; when daylight came the 
boat was found to be many miles from the place where 
it was anchored the night before, and though in this 
case the Devil-fish was not seen, there is no doubt that 
it was the cause of the change. Various other accounts 
are given of the acts of this fish in running off with 
boats of various sizes by stealing then’ anchors. The 
THE DODO. 
engraving is from a sketch made by a gentleman in 
South Carolina who several years ago assisted in taking 
the fish, which is shown lying upon its back, with the 
harpoon used in catching it still remaining in the body. 
TSie 
Our youngsters just now seem to have a taste for an¬ 
tiquities. One boy wishes to be told about the Pyramids 
and the Sphinx, while another would learn something of 
the Dodo. As between the very ancient human struc- 
RR/cr 
THE CAPTURE OF THE AMERICAN DEVIL-FISH. 
tures, and a very ancient natural production, we this 
time choose the latter, and leave the pyramids, etc., 
for another time, while we tell the very little that is 
known about the bird—the Dodo. This bird has special 
interest for naturalists; a great many animals, including 
birds, are known to have once lived, as their bones are 
found iu excellent preservation. These animals are most¬ 
ly quite unlike any now living, but although we have no 
record of them by some one who saw them many years 
ago, yet we are just as sure that these strange animals 
once lived as if we had the records—indeed even more 
so—for here are the bones, witnesses that cannot be mis¬ 
taken, to tell us that such creatures, though now quite 
extinct, once roamed over the earth or in the waters. 
The Dodo, then, is especially interesting, because, 
while now found no more, it 
being as extinct as those crea¬ 
tures referred to, has been seen, 
described, and drawn while ■ 
alive. The Dodo was formerly 
found in Mauritius, and proba¬ 
bly some of the neighboring is¬ 
lands; it was first discovered by 
the early Portuguese voyagers, 
in 1497, and was mentioned by 
various writers up to as late as 
1097. When the island was first 
visited, the birds were found in 
the greatest abundance, and the 
sailors feasted upon the flesh, 
which is said to have been ex¬ 
cellent. The formation of a 
colony by the Dutch, in 1644, 
was the beginning of the end 
of the Dodo ; what with dogs 
and other animals to destroy the 
eggs and nestlings, and the 
colonists who killed the older 
birds, it rapidly disappeared, 
and has not been known alive 
since 1715. Live birds were 
sent to England and other parts 
of Europe, and a stuffed speci¬ 
men was known as late as 1755, 
when being in bad order, it was 
destroyed, all but the head and 
a foot, which some one saved 
from the flames, probably little 
thinking Unit in doing this he 
preserved the most valuable 
evidence of the existence of the 
bird. Besides this head and 
foot, there are another foot, a 
skull, and some leg and other 
bones iu various European museums, and about six pic¬ 
tures by different persons, supposed to be taken from 
life. You will like to know how this bird—which from 
being abundant has so completely disappeared, that not 
even a skeleton remains—looked when alive; the en¬ 
graving, from one of the paintings, will show you. One 
writer described it as a “gosling enlarged to the dimen¬ 
sions of a swan.” Its short, scaly legs were of little use 
for running, while its very small wings, with a few 
feathers, could be of no use for flying; and the bird 
must have lived a lazy, quiet life, with little ability to 
get away from its ene¬ 
mies when they finally 
came to the island. 
The large bill, with 
the upper one strongly 
hooked, the clumsy 
toes, the tuft of curious 
curly feathers that an¬ 
swered for a tail, are 
plainly shown ; when 
we add that the general 
color was greyish, with 
some black feathers, 
you will know all that 
is possible to learn as 
to the appearance of the 
bird. Some naturalists 
have placed the Dodo 
with the ostrich and its 
relations, but the pres¬ 
ent opinion is, that it 
was an enormous pig¬ 
eon, and that its great 
hooked bill that looks 
so savage was merely 
for tearing open cocoa- 
nuts and other tropical 
fruits that fell from the 
trees, as the clumsy 
creature could neither 
climb nor fly to reach 
them. If a pair of live 
Dodoes could now be 
discovered, what an excitement they would make among 
our pigeon-fanciers, though perhaps not as “ carriers.” 
That “ Curious Question.”— A person going 
round the earth eastwardly will gain a day ; those going 
around vrestwardly will lose a day. When they meet at 
the starting point, the former will have seen two days 
more than the other, and by making ten such trips, he 
will have gained twenty days. See last month, page 149. 
