Fishes of the Western Nortli Atlantic 475 



Sandy Hook Bay, near New York, yielded 42 specimens.*^ And there is a report of 

 "an immense school of these fishes once seen off Block Island"** at the mouth of Long 

 Island Sound (date not stated). The geographic source of these incursions remains to 

 be determined. It is also a question for the future whether such events represent merely 

 wandering schools or temporary peaks of abundance for the species as a whole. 



Range. Coastal waters of the western Atlantic, from southern New England to 

 middle Brazil. 



Details of Occurrence. Cow-nosed Rays have been reported from localities distrib- 

 uted widely enough*' to show that they are to be expected anywhere along the east 

 coast of the United States, westward and southward from the elbow of Cape Cod, which 

 appears to mark their northern boundary, to the Gulf coasts of Florida and Louisiana. 

 Also, they appear to be a regular member of the batoid fauna of middle Brazil, whence 

 we have seen specimens (p. 469).*' But the only reports of them from the intervening 

 belt between middle Brazil and Florida are from British Guiana,** Venezuela, ^^ and 

 Matanzas on the north coast of Cuba.^^ The Cow-nosed Ray is so easily recognizable 

 that it is not likely to have been overlooked consistently throughout so vast an area. 

 Therefore, present indications are that there are two more or less distinct centers of 

 population for it, the one in United States waters in the northern hemisphere and the 

 other along middle Brazil in the southern hemisphere. 



Synonyms and References: 



Raja bonasus Mitchill, Trans. Lit. philos. Soc. N.Y., j, 1815: 479 (descr., habits, nos., season, weight, near 

 New York). 



Raja quadriloba Lesueur, J. Acad. nat. Sci. Philad., J, 1 8 17: 44, pi. not numbered (descr., ill.. New Jersey). 



Rhinoftera quadriloba Cuvier, Regne Anim., 2, 1829: 401, footnote 4 (ref to Raja quadriloba Lesueur 1817) 

 DeKay, Zool. N.Y., 4, 1842: 375, pi. 66, fig. 217 (diagn., ill. after Lesueur, 1817); Linsley, Amer 

 J. Sci., 4^, 1844: 79 (listed, Connecticut, New York); Gill, Proc. Acad. nat. Sci. Philad., Addend.; 

 1 861 : 62 (listed, Atlant. Coast N. Amer.); Dumeril, Hist. Nat. Poiss., r, 1865 : 648 (descr. after Lesueur, 

 1817 and DeKay 1842); Abbott, in Cook, Geol. N. J., Append. E, 1868: 829 (listed. New Jersey) 

 Gunther, Cat. Fish. Brit. Mus., 5, 1870: 494 (diagn., U. S.); Baird, Rep. U. S. Comm. Fish. (1871- 

 1872), 1873: 826 (listed. Woods Hole, Mass.); Gill, Rep. U.S. Comm. Fish. (1871-1872), 1873 

 812 (listed, C. Cod to Florida); Uhler and Lugger, Rep. Comm. Fish. Md., ed. i, 1876: 184, ed. 2 

 1876: 156 (listed, near mouth of Chesapeake Bay); Goode, Proc. U. S. nat. Mus., 2, 1879: 120 (listed; 

 St. Johns R., Florida); Goode and Bean, Proc. U. S. nat. Mus., 2, 1879: 155 (listed, Pensacola, Florida) 

 Goode and Bean, Proc. U. S. nat. Mus., 5, 1882: 240 (listed. Gulf of Mexico); Jordan and Gilbert 

 BuU. U.S. nat. Mus., 16, 1883: 51 (descr., C. Cod to Florida); True, List Vert. Anim. S.Carolina; 

 in Handb. S. Carolina, 1883: 260 (listed, S. Carolina); Jordan, Rep. U. S. Comm. Fish. (1885), 1887 

 800 (listed, N. Atlant. U.S.); Bean, Proc. U.S. nat. Mus., 14, 1891: 94 (listed, Chesapeake Bay) 

 Henshall, Bull. U. S. Fish Comm., 9, 1891: 384 (listed, Barnes Sound and C. Sable, Florida); Wilson, 

 Amer. Nat., 24, 1900: 355 (listed, Beaufort, N.Carolina); Hargreaves, Fish. Brit. Guiana, 1904: 15 

 (listed, Brit. Guiana); Garman, Mem. Harv. Mus. comp. Zool., j6, 1913: 444, pi- 37, figs. 1-5 (descr., 



45. Breder and Nigrelli, Copeia, 1934: 194. 46. Tracy, Rep. R.I. Comm. inl. Fish., 1906: 49; 1910: 64. 



47. Woods Hole, Massachusetts; Nantucket; Block Island; Narragansett Bay; Connecticut; various localities in the 

 vicinity of New York and along New Jersey; Delaware Bay; Atlantic Coast of Maryland; lower part of Chesapeake 

 Bay; Cape Lookout and vicinity of Beaufort, North Carolina; South Carolina; St. Johns River, Salerno (commun- 

 ication from Stewart Springer), the Keys, Cape Sable, Boca Grande, and Pensacola, Florida; Main Pass, Louisiana. 



48. One of the two names (/?. lalandii) under which it has been reported most often was based on a Brazilian specimen. 



49. Hargreaves, Fish. Brit. Guiana, 1904: 15. 50. Schultz, Proc. U.S. nat. Mus., ^g, '949= 32- 

 51. Howell-Rivero, Mem. Soc. cubana Hist, nat., 1$, 1941: 259. 



