SYMPTERYGIA BONAPARTE. 369 



Total length of one specimen 29.4, length of disk 15.3, tail from vent 14.5, 

 and greatest width 20.5 centimetres; of another the total length is 26.4, length 

 of disk 14.3, tail from vent 12.9, and greatest width 17. centimetres. 



Collected by the Albatross in about Lat. 30° N.j Long. 80° W., at depths of 

 270-258 fms. 



Sympterygia. 



Sympterygia Muller & Henle, 1837, Sitzb. akad. wiss. Berlin, p. 117. 



Disk rhomboid, angled in front, rounded on the sides and behind. Pectorals 

 extended forward of the skull, narrowly separated in the snout which includes 

 a semicartilaginous rostral support. Mouth transverse, teeth small. Spiracles 

 small, close to the eyes. Ventrals divided by a shallow notch. Tail depressed, 

 with lateral folds, two dorsals and a rudimentary caudal. Nostrils with two 

 valves; anterior reaching the mouth, joined to a wide isthmus; posterior tubular, 

 as in Raia. 



Sympterygia bonapartii. 



Sympterygia bonapartii Muller & Henle, 1841, Plagios., p. 155, pi. 50, f. 1; Dumeril, 1865, Elaam., 

 p. 575; Gunth., 1870, Cat. fishes Brit, mus., 8, p. 470. 



Snout pointed, anterior margins almost straight, outer and hinder angles 

 broadly rounded. From nostrils to tip of snout little more than their distance 

 apart. Length of disk three fourths of the width. Nasal valves slightly fringed. 

 Eyelid not produced. Teeth, of a female, flat. Slight asperities along the front 

 edge of the disk, about the eyes, along the middle of the back, and on the tail. 

 Of tubercles there is one in front of each eye, one between the eye and the spiracle, 

 one between the dorsals, and a series from head to the first dorsal, interrupted 

 above the abdomen. The lower surface is rough under the snout and the front 

 ends of the pectorals. 



Brown with spots of darker; below white, except the tail which is spotted 

 with brownish. 



Hab. ? 



As figured by Muller and Henle the anterior margins form an angle of 

 about 110°, the snout is little longer than the distance between the spiracles, 

 and the ventral fins are much broader than long, features which readily dis- 

 tinguish S. bonapartii from S. acuta. 



