QCA riiOCEEDINaS of the national museum. vol. XXVI. 



Disk very broad, length of body from tip of snout to tip of ventral 

 a little more than 1^ in its g'reatest width. Head thick, depressed and 

 rounded above; snout flexible, inferior, flattened, and rounded; eyes 

 small, lateral, at some distance in advance of spiracles; nostrils large, 

 rather close together, separated by thick, cai'tilaginous and fleshy 

 frenum, which is coarsely papillose or warty; lips and nasal flaps very 

 thick and fleshy; teeth in pavement-like plates; interorbital space 

 broad, fontanelle hollow in middle, and on each side of this a 

 little elevated and flattened. Spiracles large, oblique. Gill-openings 

 moderate. 



Body smooth. 



Dorsal fin small, its base a little less than length of spiracle, inserted 

 behind vcntrals; caudal very long, filamentous; upper surface of tail 

 with a compressed, pointed spine with serrated edges a little less in 

 length than space between spiracles; ventrals long and free, bases 

 rather narrow. 



Color in alcohol, dusky brown above, with many rather large, 

 whitish spots, distinct posteriorly; lower surface chalky white; tail 

 blackish. 



Total length. 54^ inches; without tail, about 10 inches. 



Description from a male taken at Tokyo. 



Coasts of southern Japan, not uncommon. Our specimens from 

 Hakodate, Tokyo, Onomichi, Hiroshima, Hakata, and Nagasaki. Some 

 of these have the dermal thickening, or horn, over the eye, said to 

 characterize 31. corriuta., and others are without it. This is evidently 

 not a specific character. 



{tobi-e'i., Flying Kay in Japanese.) 



53. MYLIOBATIS NIEUHOFI (Bloch and Schneider U 



Raja nieuhqfii Buk'h and Schneider, Sy.st. Ichth., 1801, p. 364; Indian Sea (after 



Zee-Vleermuis of Nienhof, in Willughby, Appendix, p. 6, pi. x, fig. 3). 

 Myliobatis meuhofil Cuvieu, Regne Auim., 1st ed., 1817, p. 138. — Mullek and 



Henle, Plagiostomen, 18.38, p. 177.— Dumeril, Elasmobranches, 1870, p. 638; 



Pondicherry. — Gunther, Cat. Fish, VIII, 1870, p. 491; Pinang, Molnccas, 



Japan. 

 RajafasciataHiww, (ivn. Zool., Ill, 1804, p. 286, pi. <'XLIIi (after Schneider). 



Body smooth, disk al)<)ut twice as broad as long. Fleshy jirolonga- 

 tion of snout, short; no hoi'n on orbit. Dorsal situated at beginning 

 of base of tail, opposite end of insertion of ventrals, no spines poste- 

 rior to it; tail about three times as long as disk. Color, olive superi- 

 orly, tinged externally with a reddish hue, and a dark, outer margui 

 to disk; young have about seven blue bands across disk and two more 

 l>etween or close to eyes; as fish increases in size first bands on head 

 disappinir, and finally those on body. (Gunther, Day.) 



Indian Ocean and archipelago; a half -grown specimen in the British 



