458 Memoir Sears Foundation for Marine Research 



Color. Upper surface of disc and subrostral fin olivaceous or chestnut brown; the 

 pectorals more or less dark-rimmed, sometimes so dark as to appear almost black 

 throughout; conspicuously marked with small white, bluish white, greenish, pearly, or 

 yellow spots, rings (complete or broken), rings connected in pairs, rarely dumbbell- 

 shaped figures or short streaks, these markings usually more numerous and more closely 

 spaced posterior to spiracles than anterior to them; a rather definite row, about as large 

 as eye, skirting posterior margin of each pectoral, sometimes so close together as to 

 give the fin a pale-edged appearance; upper surface of pelvics of same ground tint as 

 disc, dark-edged posteriorly, each with 6—10 larger or smaller pale spots or blotches, 

 occasionally more or less confluent; dorsal fin uniformly dark on some specimens, but 

 others with a pale blotch on its anterior margin; upper surface of tail dark brown or 

 black posteriorly, sometimes with one or two pale blotches anterior to dorsal fin. Lower 

 surfaces of disc and pelvics plain white, except tip of subrostral fin and posterior margins 

 and tips of pelvics dusky in some cases; lower surface of tail white anterior to level of 

 tail spine, dark thence rearward to tip in preserved specimens, but described as having 

 pale crossbars when fresh. 



The distribution, sizes, and shapes of the pale markings on the upper surface 

 vary widely, apparently irrespective of geographic locality or age. In many individuals 

 the spots are all about equal in size, no larger than the eye, and are comparatively 

 evenly and closely distributed over the disc, including the head; in others the spots are 

 much less numerous and considerably largest along the midzone of the disc. The head 

 may have a larger or smaller number of spots or there may be none at all anterior to the 

 spiracles; the subrostral fin is about as closely spotted as the head in some examples, 

 but it is either plain or marked with only one or two spots in most of those that we have 

 examined ** Also, specimens have been described as having pale crossbars,*' but it 

 seems that these appear only after death, if at all.** The spots are described as blue if 

 the epidermis is rubbed off, as often happens in the process of capture, and the mucous 

 pores may be marked by black dots on specimens where the ground tint of the back of 

 the disc is not too dark for them to show. An albino has been reported also. 



Size. The smallest recorded free-living specimens were 185, 190, and 286 mm 

 wide, but we have three specimens, 350—360 mm wide, taken at Bimini, Bahamas from 

 a mother that was seven feet across; we have also examined an embryo of 250 mm; 

 these data suggest that the breadth at birth may be anywhere between 170 and about 

 360 mm. It appears that some specimens mature at a much smaller size than others or 

 that local populations of different sizes exist in different regions, for the claspers reach 

 only about halfway along the pelvics on a male 1,120 mm wide** but reach to the tips 



66. See especially Gudger (Pap. Tortugas Lab., 6 (12), Publ. Carneg. Instn., 183, 1914: 265, pis. j-7) for an extended 

 account, with excellent photographs, of the color patterns of Florida and North Carolina specimens, including an 

 albino. 



67. Represented as having narrow dark cross stripes in Jordan and Evermann (Bull. U. S. nat. Mus., 47 [4], 1900: 

 pi. 16, fig. 37) and in various subsequent illustrations based on theirs. 



68. None of the preserved specimens that we have examined show them. For discussion of their incidence and signifi- 

 cance, see Gudger (Pap. Tortugas Lab., 6 [12], Publ. Carneg. Instn., 183, 1914: 272). 



69. Examined by us and catalogued simply "Europe." 



