2 Memoir Sears Foundation for Marine Research 



U. S. Fish ami Wildlife Service vessel Albatross III for desirable specimens and 

 data on Skates and Rays jrom the North Carolina Coast taken during midwinter ; 

 to Luis Ho%vell-Ii.ivero for Cuban Rays; to Captain R. Howard, A. U.S., for Tor- 

 pedo and Sting Rays from the east coast of Florida ; to Marie Poland Fish for Rays 

 from Rhode Island ; to Leslie W. Scatter good for information as to the season for 

 Raja ocellata with egg cases off the coast of Maine ; to Paul M. Hansen for speci- 

 mens o/'Raja radiatayrow Greenland and for other information ; to Captain C. W. 

 Thomas, U. S. C. G., and Commander P. L. Stimpson, U. S. C. G.,for obtaining spe- 

 cimens of Raja hyperboreayor us in West Greenland ; to Commander David C. Nutt 

 and Richard H. Backus for records of Raja radiata from Labrador ; to W. Temple- 

 man for a specimen of Raja spinicauda from northeastern Newfoundland, for spe- 

 cimens oj R. radiata yro/w the Grand Banks, and for other information ; to V. D. 

 V lady kov for specimens o/^Raja erinacea from the estuary of the St. Laivrence River; 

 to Miss Ethelwyn Trewavas of the British Museum (Natural History ) for supplying 

 the description of the type specimen of the Devil Ray Ceratobatis robertsii and for 

 arranging to have drawings of it prepared by Hubert Williams ; to G. Palmer for 

 drawings and measurements o/Diplobatis pictus; to Dr. George White, "J. Incar- 

 done, and W. E. Kruger for the x-ray photographs reproduced in Fig. 62, and to Dr. 

 Leonard D. Nathan for his assistance in obtaining x-rays ; to Sehora Helena Paes 

 de Oliveira for photographs of Brazilian Skates; to John Tee-Van for contributing 

 bibliographic citations without which the work could hardly have been undertaken ; 

 to Ludloiv Griscom and 'James L. Peters for assistance in nomenclatural problems ; 

 to H. W. Fowler for welcome information on various Skates and Rays ; to Frank 

 Huber for notes on a large Manta taken off New Jersey ; to F. E. Firth, and Cap- 

 tains Donald Campbell and Frank Janssen for interesting records of offshore cap- 

 tures o/^Torpedo nobiliana; to Captains Henry W. Klimm, Jr. and Jared Vincent 

 for furnishing information on the captures of various Skates on the offshore winter 

 fishing grounds off southern New England; to J. C. Brew, Sir P. H. Buck and 

 Captain E. H. Bryan for assembling information on the use of Sting Ray spines as 

 weapons in various parts of the world, and to Airs. Myvanwy Dick for much assi- 

 stance in the preparation of the manuscript. 



GENERAL DISCUSSION 



Scope of Study. The following pages give descriptions, illustrations, life histories, geo- 

 graphic distribution, and references for all species of Sawfishes, Guitarfishes, Skates and 

 Rays that are known in the western side of the North Atlantic. The characterizations 

 of suborders, families, and genera, together with the corresponding Keys, cover the 

 batoid fishes as a whole ; this also applies to Species Keys in cases where present know- 

 ledge permits. 



