The Spotted Eagle Ray. 267 



previously referred to were present and pretty definite. They were ex- 

 tremely narrow bands made by dirty white lines with dark edges, due to the 

 ground color. On none of my specimens were they so marked as on this one. 



Specimen No. 11 was taken in the channel connecting the inner and 

 outer harbors, on July 4. When it came in I was very busy with other 

 matters, so it was put in a tank of running salt water and left for two or 

 three hours. When it was got round to, I found to my regret that the 

 cuticle was beginning to slip, so all haste was made to photograph it. This 

 took so much time that no careful notes of the life color could be made. 

 The ventral view (fig. 2, plate i), the front aspect (fig. 16, plate vi), and 

 the lateral view of the head (fig. 12, plate vi) were all made from this fish. 



After immersion in formalin (5 per cent) for 15 days, the color of this 

 specimen showed up as follows: general color pearl gray or bluish-gray; 

 where the cuticle had slipped it was a light chocolate brown ; the spots, larger 

 on mid-dorsal region and smaller on the head and at the extremities of the pec- 

 torals, were a bright white in the center of the disk and elsewhere a dirty 

 white with distinct white centers, giving the familiar eye-like appearance. 

 Sparsely scattered over the whole disk were dumb-bell-shaped markings made 

 by the coalescence of two spots. The dorsal fin had on its hinder half the 

 familiar white spot changed to a stripe, edged with black, and at its base a 

 large spot. Both pectorals had spots as follows : Anterior edge, 20 spots ; pos- 

 terior, 23; and in both a line of very indistinct spots on the crenate hinder 

 edges. The outer and inner edges of the bases of the ventrals were edged with 

 white. White spots were found in the spiracles as in other specimens. The 

 transverse lines were fairly distinct and in some cases they crossed the spots. 

 This was an immature male, with claspers only three- fourths of an inch long. 



Spotted sting ray No. in, 1910, was taken, on July 7, within 300 yards 

 of the locality for No. 11, by the same fishermen. I reached the scene while 

 it was still flapping on the beach, and, as soon as it was dead, covered it with 

 wet towels and bringing it to the laboratory (a third of a mile away) 

 photographed it while still fresh. Its picture forms the frontispiece to this 

 paper. While fresh its color was a dark chocolate-brown and its spots 

 were cream-colored, some of them turning a faint bluish or greenish-blue. 

 No striations whatever could be found although they were carefully searched 

 for. After 12 days in weak formalin its condition was almost as perfect 

 as when brought in, but its color was now a bluish-gray while the spots 

 were still cream-colored running to white. This ray had the largest spots of 

 any examined at Beaufort by the writer. Smaller on the head where they 

 were arranged in definite rows, they were pretty uniform in size over the 

 rest of the body, and (more than on any other Beaufort fish examined by 

 me) showed a tendency to run together (see fig. i, plate i). 



Attention is called to the spots of extra large size at the base of the 

 ventrals and to their presence in the spiracles. On the anterior edge of 

 the right pectoral fin there were 20 spots, and in the same region on the 

 left 21. It was not easy to count them on the posterior edges, because 



