72 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 



29. Cow-nosed ray {Rhinoptera quadriloha LeSueur) 



Jordan and Evermann (Rhinoptera bonasus Mitchill), 1896-1900, p. 90. 

 Garman, 1913, p. 444. 



Description. — The cow-nosed ray and all its close relatives are of such charac- 

 teristic batlike outline, with head so peculiar and teeth so different from those of our 

 other Gulf of Maine skates and rays, thatonceseen they are never apt to be mistaken 

 for anything else. The anterior angle of the disk is much blunter than a right angle; 

 the outer corners of the pectorals are acute, pointed, and their posterior margins 

 distinctly concave. The ventral fins are comparatively very small, longer than 

 wide, reaching but a short distance back of the posterior corner of the pectorals. 

 There is a single small dorsal fin originating a short distance back of the bases of 

 the ventrals, and immediately back of it stands a stout spine. The tail is hardly 

 twice as long as the disk, whiplike and tapering to a very slender tip. The cranium 



Fig. 30. — Cow-nosed ray (Rhinoptera quadriloba). After Garman 



of the cow-nosed ray is raised above the general level of the disk with the large 

 eyes set lateral instead of dorsal, and in front of the fins instead of far back as in 

 other skates and rays. Its teeth are flat and arranged like the bricks or tiles in a 

 pavement in a manner more easdy figured than described. 



Size. — The cow-nosed ray grows to a length of about 7 feet. In one about 

 33J^ inches in total length the disk was 25 inches long by 32^2 inches broad. 58 



Color. — Brown above; white below, except toward the outer corners of the 

 pectoral fins where it is brownish. 



General range. — Atlantic coast of the United States, Nantucket to Florida. 



» Described by Radclifle (Bulletin, U. S. Bureau of Fisheries, Vol. XXXIV, 1914 (1916), p. 279). 



