The Spotted Eagle Ray. 3 1 1 



Jordan and Evermann (1896), probably quoting Gunther (1870), include 

 among their synonyms Goniobatis macroptera McClelland. On looking up 

 McClelland's paper (1840), one finds that he describes and figures, under 

 the name Myliohatis macroptera, an eagle ray from the Indian Ocean. Text- 

 figures 18 and 19 are reproductions of his drawings, the latter of the under 

 side of the head. If the figure be inspected carefully, it will be seen that 

 the dorsally placed eyes, the short, round-pointed pectorals forming pos- 

 teriorly a rounded projection where the tail joins the body, the broad-based, 

 square-ended ventrals, which McClelland says equal one-third the entire 

 length of the body, the short tail, the roughly parallel lines extending across 

 the disk and bent backwards over the body proper, and the few scattered 

 spots on the pectorals only are not found in any figure or description of A . 

 narinari published by any other writer. Then if text-figure 19 be studied, 

 it will be seen that the lower jaw is square-cut instead of angled outwards. 

 Further McClelland compares his ray with M. maciilatus, notes that it has 

 rounded ventrals, whereas his ray has angular fins, and ends by declaring that 

 his ray is an entirely new form. These points clearly show that Myliohatis 

 macroptera can by no means be considered as identical with A . narinari. 



In a verbal communication to the Boston Society of Natural History, 

 June 16, 1858, Agassiz (1859) proposed, on the basis of a specimen sent 

 from the Sandwich Islands, a new genus, Goniobatis, for angle-toothed rays 

 having the palate broadest behind and with plates obtusely angular having 

 the rounded edges forward. This description exactly fits Cuvier's drawing of 

 the teeth of Myliobatis narinari (see text-fig. 12). For the specific name, 

 Agassiz used the term meleagris (guinea fowl), probably in allusion to the 

 spots. Neither term seems ever to have been used, and Jenkins (1904) 

 considers the name synonymous with A. narinari. This is probably correct, 

 but as the fish, so far as the present writer knows, was never carefully 

 described, we can not be absolutely sure. Agassiz also proposed that the 

 A. flagellum of the Indian Ocean be renamed Goniobatis flagellum, but his 

 suggestion was never taken up. 



In 1867, Dr. Theodore N. Gill described, under the name A etobatis laticeps, 

 a spotted ray sent from San Francisco, but of unknown habitat. As the 

 specific name implies, the head was wide and the snout obtusely rounded. 

 Jordan and Evermann (1896) assign it a place in their "Fishes of the North 

 and Middle America" (vol. i, page 88) and give as its habitat the west 

 coast of Mexico from the Gulf of California to Panama, but mark it as 

 doubtfully separated from A. narinari. Gill himself notes that it is closely 

 related to this form and also to A. latirostris A. Dumeril, and probably not 

 far from Agassiz's Goniobatis meleagris. In his "Fishes of Sinalog." (1895) 

 Jordan states, on the authority of Evermann, that this west coast supposed 

 A. laticeps is identical with A. narinari; while later (1898), in volume iii of 

 the "Fishes," etc., he proposes to omit A. laticeps as a species on the ground 

 that no essential differences between it and A. narinari can be found. 



