76 



FISHERY BULLETIN OF THE FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



measured width definitely recorded for it is 5 feet, 

 the greatest measured length 10 feet 3 inches. 

 But some certainly grow considerably larger, for 

 a New Jersey specimen has been reported as 

 nearly 7 feet across; the corresponding length 

 would be 13 to 14 feet, if the tail were intact. 



Color. — Fresh caught specimens seen by us at 

 Woods Hole have been dark brownish above 

 with the tail black from the spine rearward; 

 white below. 



General range. — Coastal waters of the western 

 Atlantic, from the latitude of Cape Hatteras 

 to Cape Cod; most common from Delaware Bay 

 to the Woods Hole region. 



Occurrence in the Gulf of Maine. — The only 



claim of this sting ray to mention here is that one 

 was reported from Chatham on the outer shore of 

 Cape Cod many years ago, and that it is said to 

 have been seen on the shoaler parts of Georges 

 Bank. It has no real status as a Gulf of Maine 

 fish, appearing there only as a summer straggler 

 from the south, though it is so common near 

 Woods Hole that the fish traps there catch some 

 400 to 500 of them in ordinary summers. 81 



Beware of handling any skate-like fish with a 

 long, whip-like tail, lest it prove to be a sting ray. 

 The tail spine (brought into action as the tail i9 

 lashed to and fro) is a dangerous weapon ; and the 

 wounds made by it cause excruciating pain. 



THE COW-NOSED RAYS. FAMILY RHINOPTERIDAE 



The cow-nosed rays, like the whip-tailed rays, 

 have a very loDg tail armed with one or more 

 poisonous sa wedged spines; a very flat broad disc; 

 and pelvic fins with convex outer margins. But 

 their pectoral fins are interrupted on each side of 

 the head, so that the forward portions form a 

 separate two-lobed fin extending forward from the 

 lower side in front of the mouth and nostrils; their 

 crowns are high-domed; their eyes and spiracles 

 are on the sides of the head instead of on its upper 

 surface; and they have a small dorsal fin on the 

 upper side of the tail in front of the tail spines. 

 Their teeth have the form of large, flat grinding 

 plates, fitting close together in mosaic arrange- 

 ment; and there are only 7 to 9 series of them in 

 each jaw. 



Cow-nosed ray 



Rhinoptera bonasus (Mitchill) 1815 



Bigelow and Schroeder, 1953, p. 469. 



Garman, 1913, pi. 37, as Rhinoptera quadriloba. 



Description. — The cow-nosed rays with all their 

 close relatives 82 have such characteristic out- 

 lines, the shape of their heads is so peculiar with 

 the eyes and spiracles on the sides, and their large, 

 flat, plate-like teeth are so different from those of 

 any other Gulf of Maine skates or rays that they 

 are not apt to be mistaken for anything else. 



" This estimate is based on our own observations near Woods Hole. 



11 The eagle rays, family Myliobatidae, and butterfly rays, family 

 Oymnurldae, are close allies of the cow-nosed rays; none of them has yet 

 been encountered in our Gulf. 



The species in question is characterized among its 

 confreres by the indented contour of the front of 

 its head, and by the conspicuously bilobed outline 

 of the short so-called "subrostral" fin that pro- 

 jects forward from the lower side of the latter. 

 The outer corners of the pectorals are pointed, and 

 their posterior margins distinctly concave. The 

 pelvic fins are small, reaching but a short distance 

 back of the posterior corners of the pectorals. 

 The dorsal fin is rounded above, originating about 

 opposite the rear ends of the bases of the pelvics. 

 The tail measured from the center of the cloaca is 

 about twice as long as the body from cloaca to- 

 front of head on adults if not damaged, nearly 3 

 times on small specimens. The tail spines (1 or 2) 

 are close behind the rear limits of the pelvic fins, 

 and thus much further forward on the tail than 

 those of the sting rays (p. 74). There usually are 

 7 series of teeth in each jaw, with up to 11 to 13 

 rows exposed, and in function simultaneously. 



Size. — The cow-nosed ray has been said to 

 grow to a breadth of 7 feet. But the largest 

 specimen the width of which has either been 

 actually measured or can be calculated from some 

 other dimension, was only about 38 inches wide. 89 



Color.— Brownish above, white or yellowish 

 white below. Some of them are marked both 

 above and below with many narrow faint dark 

 lines radiating out from the center of the disc. 



General range. — -Western Atlantic coast from 

 middle Brazil to southern New England. 



<* Calculated from the dimensions of the head of one from Rio de Janeiro. 



