NARCINE BRASILIENSIS. 297 



caudal obliquely rounded 



rostral ridges long, nearly parallel . . firma (page 301) 

 Spiracles without papillae, at a short distance from orbits 

 origin of first dorsal above ends of the ventrals 



nasal valves short tasmaniensis (page 301) 



origin of first dorsal above ends of ventral bases 



nasal valves long mollis (page 302) 



NARCINE BRASILIENSIS. 



Plate 26, fig. 1. 



Raia sp. Gronow, 1763, Zoophy., 1, 35, no. 153, pi. 9, f. 3. 



Torpedo ocellata Quoy & Gaimard, 1S24, Voy. Uran., Poiss., p. 199. 



Torpedo brasiliensis Olfers, 1831, Torpedo, p. 19, pi. 2, f. 4. 



Narcine brasiliensis Henle, 1834, Ueber Narcine, p. 31, pi. 1, f. 1, 2; Muller& Henle, 1841, Plagios., 



p. 129; Dumeril, 1852, Torpedo, p. 32; 1865, Elasm., p. 574; Kner, 1867, Nov. fische, p. 418; 



Gixth., 1870, Cat. fishes Brit, mus., 8, p. 453; Gasman, 1888, Bull. M. C. Z., 17, p. 93, pi. 33. 

 Xarcine nigra Dumeril, 1852, Torpedo, p. 37; 1865, Elasm., p. 515, pi. 11, f. 4, 4°. 



Disk subcircular, or including ventrals suboval. Nostrils small, near the 

 mouth; anterior valves short, confluent in a broad flap, free behind and in- 

 distinctly three lobed, angles rounded; posterior valves rudimentary, forming 

 the partition in the nostril then passing back into the fold at the angle of the 

 mouth. Mouth small protractile, surrounded by a deep fold, with fleshy lips 

 which are divided at the middle of each jaw by the narrow teeth-bands. Teeth 

 small, bands narrow and extended outward on the skin beyond each jaw; each 

 tooth with an acuminate angle on the crown directed inward; rows If on an 

 eighteen inch specimen, §f on one of thirteen inches, if on one of six and three- 

 fourths, and if on one of four and one half inches. Eyes small, prominent. 

 Spiracles as large as the eyes, close behind the orbits, fringed on the margins by a 

 dozen or more low papillae. Ventrals with convex margins; claspers of the 

 male, short, blunt. Dorsals equal, rounded, origin of first dorsal, little behind 

 the ends of the bases of the ventrals, base longer than distance from second. 

 Tail shorter than the disk, depressed, broad-based, tapering rapidly, lateral 

 folds from middle of first dorsal. Caudal nearly as long as deep, rounded on 

 the hind margin. 



Brown, dark to yellowish, with a broad blotch of darker brown across the 

 head in front of the eyes, another interrupted one across the back of the head, 

 one or two likewise broken across the hind part of the body, one to three across 

 the ventrals, and one through each dorsal on the caudal region; margins of fins 



