FISHES — TORPEDINIDAE — UBAPTERA BINOCULATA. 373 



their occurrence at any other season. The Indians will not eat them very often, but say they 

 are not poisonous. 



" Length from tip of snout to root of tail, three feet six inches. Length of tail, two feet. 

 Breadth across middle of belly, four feet two inches. Tip of snout to margin of mouth, eleven 

 inches. 



" Color, above entirely dark brown ; below dull white. Iris yellow, 



"Snout and top of head thickly covered with short, recurved, hooked prickles, diminishing 

 in size from the centre of head towards the circumference. Tail also thickly covered with the 

 same, above and on the sides, 



"No spine in tail. Cartilaginous expansions along its upper ridge, near the end. 



" Convexity about the same on each surface of the body ; snout rounded above, flat below. 

 Tail nearly cylindrical ; blunt." 



URAPTERA, Miill. & Henle. 



Gen. Char. — Aspect and structure of the snout and of the ventral fins as in Raja, from which it is to be distiniruished by 

 a slender tail, and without terminal or caudal fin. 



SYS.— Uraptera, Mull. & Henle, Syst. Beschr. Plagiost. 1841, 155.— Dum. Ichthyol. analyt 1856, 143. 



It is a matter of more than common interest when a genus, originally framed upon a single 

 and isolated species, makes the accession of others previously unknown, 



URAPTEKA BINOCULATA, Grd. 



Spec. Char. — Three orbital and one dorsal spines ; sixteen along the tail ; rest of the body smooth. Dorsal fins situated 

 very far back, sub-equal, longer than deep, approximated, and placed near the end of the tail. Posterior margin of ventral 

 fins moderately emarginated, the edge scalloped or undulating, owing to the concavity of the interradial membrane. 

 Olivaceous brown above, with two large black ri!:gs upon the middle of the pectorals ; beneath yellowish white. 



Sy}{.— Raja hinoculata, Grd. in Proc. Acad. Nat. So. Philad. VII, 1854, 19C. 



The form is sub-rhomboid ; slightly undulated upon the anterior margins, and rounded off 

 posteriorly. The angles formed by the pectoral fins being likewise rounded. The transverse 

 diameter is much greater than the longitudinal. The snout is tapering anteriorly, without 

 being pointed or protruding. The distance between the nostrils and the apex of the snout is 

 somewhat greater than the interval between the nostrils themselves. The eyes are moderate 

 sized ; the orbits surrounded with three spines, two anteriorly and one posteriorly and inwardly. 

 A small spine is also observed upon the dorsal lino, near the origin of the trunk. The tail from 

 the vent to its tip is nearly equal in length to the rest of the body and head together ; it is 

 slender and depressed over most of its extent, provided above with a series of sixteen spines, 

 beginning at the very origin of that organ, extending to the anterior margin of the first dorsal fin. 

 Laterally is observed a membranous expanded ridge, which may be traced to its very tip. 

 The second dorsal fin is nearly as large as the first dorsal, and separated from it by a quite 

 narrow space ; both being longer than deep, and superiorly sub-convex. The portion of the tail 

 extending back of the second dorsal fin is equal to the two-thirds of the base of the same fin. 

 The ventrals are broad and short, emarginated or bilobed posteriorly and scalloped ; the inner 

 lobe being larger than the outer one. 



With the exception of the few spines alluded to above, the upper surface of the body is per- 

 fectly smooth. 



The ground color is olivaceous brown ; the snout dull whitish. A large sub-circular black 



