The Spotted Eagle Ray. 265 



fainter than in Hawaiian examples. The latter, however, of much larger 

 size." Here the reader's attention is called to Dumeril's statement con- 

 cerning the relative size of the spots. 



H. M. Smith (1907), writing of Beaufort specimens, says that the color 

 is brown on the dorsal surface with many round, small, pale spots and with 

 dark parallel lines [not bands] running transversely. He is the first and 

 only writer to refer to the dark bands shown in Jordan and Evermann's 

 drawing (text-fig. 3). 



Recalling Marcgrave's (1648) statement, that his ray was iron or steel 

 colored above, with white spots scattered all over the whole dorsal surface 

 (except the head and snout), it is interesting to have Miranda Ribeiro's 

 (1907) description of Brazilian specimens. Writing 259 years after Marc- 

 grave, he says present-day specimens are, "dark olive above with blue-white 

 spots, which are round, more or less equidistant from each other, and of a 

 size approximately that of the eyes." 



Gunther's (1910) South Sea specimen from Samoa is expressly declared 

 to be indistinguishable from Atlantic specimens of equal size. No general 

 color is given, but the whole upper surface is thick-set with round bluish- 

 white spots, those on the head, however, being rather few. 



The first and only writer who seems to have ever seen the lines or bars was 

 the French Capuchin friar, Claude d'Abbeville (i 614). He states briefly 

 and simply that "this fish (the Narinnary) is all striped of black and white." 



Excepting de Laet (1633), who merely quotes d'Abbeville, no writer 

 from 1 614 to 1907 (Smith) makes mention of these curious and interesting 

 color bands and lines. My own observations on Beaufort and Key West 

 specimens are given at length in the following pages, together with the 

 conclusions based thereon. 



I have had from Beaufort five specimens, two in 1909 and three in 1910. 

 Elsewhere (Gudger, 1910 and 191 2a) these various specimens have been 

 described. In 1909 I had no knowledge of the great variations in color 

 which are found in Aetobatus narinari and unfortunately made no notes 

 thereon, being chiefly occupied with those points wherein these specimens 

 differed so markedly from those of Jordan and Evermann. At this late 

 day, all that can be said is that their color agreed pretty closely with that 

 given by these authors for their specimens. My notes, however, record the 

 fact that in life no lines were visible on specimen No. i. I was thoroughly 

 convinced of their absence until Director AUer, after the fish had been dead 

 some hours, called my attention to them. They were, however, extremely 

 faint and only visible when the light fell on the fish at a certain angle. The 

 specimen was dissected for internal organs and jaws and thrown away. 



Mr. Coles's specimen. No. 2 for 1909, after being in 5 per cent formalin 

 for a year, was carefully examined. Its general color was found to be a 

 light brown overlaid with a bluish or leaden-gray. The spots which were 

 scattered over the whole dorsal surface (head included) were cream-colored 

 or dirty white. None of them had dark rings around them, but nearly all 



