116 SANDY RAY. 



A few spines near tlie end of the snout, a line of tliem behind 

 each eye, five short parallel rows on the middle of the back, 

 the middle row continued obscurely along the groove to the 

 tail, which is covered with stout hooks, scarcely in regular 

 lines; the rest of the body smooth. Colour above an uniform 

 reddish brown, white below. On the disk a variable number 

 of oscellated spots, the size of the section of a large pea; 

 the centre yellow, the border a deeper impression of the 

 colour of the ground. I have counted eight up to sixteen 

 of these spots in different examples, and believe they have 

 no certain number,* but they are always situated on each 

 side of the disk in corresponding regularity. I have never 

 found them absent, nor have I ever found the remarkable 

 beauty-spot, which is so common on several species of this 

 family, and forms so conspicuous an ornament on the Cuckoo 

 Ray, on this fish. 



