Starrs: Ichthvological Sukvev about San Juan Islands. 171 



rhina they are joined along their anterior half. This condition may 

 be easily appreciated through the skin. Raja rhina never has a 

 large spot at the base of the pectoral. Wiien a spot is present at 

 this place it is in the form of a small ring. It sometimes has light 

 spots scattered over the body, but never very distinct, and never 

 arranged as a conspicuous ring at liu' base of the pectoral haxing a 

 diameter nearly as great as the length of the sntnit (not evident in 

 the young of less than a foot in length). In Raja hinoculata, especially 

 in the adult, the anterit)r outline of the disk is less deeply concave, 

 and the snout is shorter and blunter. The eye is smaller; the skin of 

 the adult is without smooth areas; the median spines on the tail 

 are smaller, at least in the adult; the color is more slaty; the flesh is 

 firmer; and the egg-capsules are many times larger. One never has 

 any difficult}' in anticipating from the outside of an egg-capsule 

 what species will be found inside, for the young may be even more 

 readily separated than the adults. 



4. Raja inornata Jordan and Gilbert. 

 This common species has never been recorded north of California, 

 but for the sake of completeness it is here included, being the only 

 other species in this genus frequenting the coast south of Alaska. 



Fig. 4. Raja inornata. 9 • 28 in. long. San Francisco. 



Fig. 5. Raja binocidala. cf . 27 in. long. To show ventral fins. 



The tollowing description is of fi\e female specimens from San Fran- 

 cisco ranging from twenty-fi\-e to twenty-eight inches in length. 



The snout measured on the median line from between the front 

 of the eyes is contained from 3.5 to 3.6 times in the distance to the 

 nner angle of the pectoral. The interorbital space is from 2.% to 5 



