126 ON MYLIOBATIS AND PTEROCEPKALA. 



#tt Pijliobatis anti f tcrcapliala. 



BY S. HENRY SWAYNE, M.R.C.S. 



Read April ofh, 1877. 



HAVING lately purchased for the Bristol Museum from a 

 local fishmongers fresh specimen of the Eagle Ray or 

 Toad-Fish {Mt/liohaU's aqiiila) which was believed to have been 

 captured in or near Torbay, I think its description may be of some 

 interest. 



It appears that this fish has been considered a rather rare visitant 

 of our coasts, but Mr. Couch in his '' Fishes of the British 

 Islands" has described his obtaining from Fowey, in Cornwall, a 

 large purse containing a young example of this species, and also 

 mentions that Dr. Geo. Johnson had obtained a specimen as far 

 north as Berwick. Mr. Couch's description is copied however from 



