The Spotted Eagle Ray. 275 



sidewise with their barbs turned backward. His figure (fig. 5, plate iii) 

 is not so good as his description; the stings are entirely too long, the shafts 

 too slender, and the barbs too fine and long. 



Russell's Eel Tenkee (1803) had a "tail of great length" (5 feet 2 inches 

 long compared to a body width of 2 feet 10 inches), tapering to a fine point, 

 darker in color than the body (true of all the specimens I have examined), 

 bearing a small dorsal fin and behind it a spine. In his drawing, both fin 

 and spine are placed too far forward, between the ventral fins. 



Quoy and Gaimard's (1824) 5-spined tail, previously referred to, is 

 reproduced as A in figure 7, plate iv; B in the same figure is a dried tail 

 presented to me by Mr, W. H. Shelton, of Beaufort. The photograph was 

 made by laying the tail on the plate in the Atlas of the "Voyage of the 

 Uranie,'" and having put a piece of black paper underneath the white spines, 

 a long exposure was made with a very small diaphragm. Of their specimen, 

 which has the largest number of spines on record of any sting ray of any 

 kind, these authors state that "the particular form of its tail, armed with 

 five very long spines barbed and hooked along the edges, leads us to name 

 it the ray of the five spines, Raia qui?iqueaculata." In the section on species, 

 the question whether or not this is an Aetobatus will be taken up. Suffice 

 it to say here that it is undoubtedly a whip-tailed ray and possibly an 

 Aetobatus. 



Ruppell's (1835) Myliobatis eeltenkee, from the Red Sea, is identical 

 with Russell's Indian ray from which the specific name is taken. Beyond 

 noting that the spine is "robust" and the tail four times the length of the 

 body, there is nothing in his description to detain us. 



Miillerand Henle's (1841) description of Aetobatis wanwari is wonderfully 

 accurate in all points. Of the tail, which is more than three times the 

 length of the body, they say that in the region anterior to the dorsal fin it is 

 triangular in section, while behind the spine it is compressed and has 

 distinct lateral grooves. These structures, with the exception of the lateral 

 grooves, I find present in the 4-spined tail previously referred to; while the 

 triangular form of the base of the tail extends to the end of the last and longest 

 spine. The lateral grooves are found, however, in another dried tail in my 

 possession. 



Lichtenstein (1844) tells us that Forster's Raja edentula had a very long, 

 attenuate, cylindrical tail, three times the length of the body of the fish ; while 

 behind the short dorsal were twin spines hooked and biserrate to the very tip. 



When Gunther (1870) made his "Catalogue of the Fishes in the British 

 Museum," he found therein two (dried?) tails, but, beyond noting that one 

 had four and the other five spines, he gives no description of them. 



Klunzinger (1871) describes the tail of the spotted sting ray from the 

 Red Sea as thick only at the root, long, whiplash-like, slightly compressed, 

 and smooth. The pointed, saw-toothed spine, which is twice the length of 

 the eye, is situated on the base of the tail just anterior to the hinder edge 

 of the ventral fins. Day (1878) is the only author who notes with Muller 

 and Henle that the base of the tail is triangular as far as the spine.. 



