500 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OP 



Dorsal fins rather small, placed far back on the tail and behind the ventral 

 fins ; each angle is rounded, and the anterior project backwards. 



Anal fin obsolete. 



Caudal fin small and emarginated, with its lower lobe equal to or larger than 

 its upper. 



Pectoral fins much developed, subrhomboidal, extending forwards from the 

 base and separate by a cleft from the neck. The external angle is obtuse and 

 the inner rounded. 



Ventral fins much developed, rounded at the external and produced at the 

 internal, nearer the head than the caudal fin. 



Genus RBINA Klein. 



Squalus, sp. Artedi, &c. 



Rhina Klein, Historiae Piscium promovenda? missus tertius depiscibusperbran- 



chias occultas spirantibus, 1742. 

 Squatina Dumiril, Zoologie Analytique, 1806. 

 Rhina Rofinesque, Caratteri di Alcuni nuovi Generi e nuove specie, &c, p. 14, 



1810. 

 Squatina Rafinesque, Blainville, Cuvier, Risso, Lesueur, Fleming, Jenyns, Miiller 



and Henle, Bonaparte, &c. 

 Rhina Gill, Catalogue of the Fishes of the Eastern Coast of North America. 



Body elongated and depressed, rather abruptly attenuated towards the caudal 

 fin behind the ventrals and carinated on each side. 



Scales conical, terminating in a fine point. 



Head transverse, suborbicular, at the neck slightly constricted, and with the 

 anout transverse. Each side furnished with a cutaneous ledge running from 

 the external corner of the nostrils to the branchial fissure. 



Eyes small, circular, in a line with the nostrils and spiracles and nearly 

 equally remote from each. 



Spiracles crescentic and convex before. Upper lip broad. 



Cartilages of the mouth two above as well as below. 



Nostrils in the anterior border of the upper lip, notched in the middle, and 

 provided on each side with a flap, the external of which is broad and indented, 

 and the interval divided into several scalloped lappets. 



Teeth conical, little trenchant, scattered and absent at the symphisis of both 

 the upper and lower jaw. 



Dorsal fins nearly equal, small, and nearly equidistant from each other, the 

 ventrals and the caudal ; the angle is rounded and projects backwards as far 

 as the rounded posterior angle. 



Caudal fin emarginated with obtuse lobes, the lower of which is larger. 



Pectoral fin large, produced towards the external angle, and broaded at the 

 inner. 



Ventral fins oblong, rounded at the anterior or external angle, and acutely 

 produced towards the inner. 



The genus Rhina is the only existing representatives of the family of which 

 it is typical, and is readily recognizable by its peculiar form. In allusion to 

 that form, the vulgar namer of Angel fish has been applied to it, the physiog- 

 nomy of the species recalling to the mind of the people the figures of 

 " Cherubim." 



Six species of this genus are more or less perfectly known. They are dis- 

 tributed in all the temperate seas of the Northern hemisphere. Three species 

 have been assigned to the Mediterranean sea. 

 Rhina squatina Raf. ex Linn. 

 Rhina oculata Gill = Squatina oculata Bon. 

 Rhina fimbriata Gill = Squatina fimbriata M. and H. 



One species closely related to the R. squatina and formerly confouuded with it 

 is found at Japan. 



[Oct. 



