FISHES. — MCCULLOCH. 103 



inner ones each developing an angular cusp, which is longest 

 on the median line. A broad fimbriated flap behind the 

 upper jaw, and five papillse inside the lowei one, of which the 

 outer pair is smaller than and remote from the other three. 

 Four anterior gill-openings sub-equal in size, the last a little 

 more than half as wide as the others. 



Colour. — Uniform pale greyish-broAni above, white below. 



The above description and the accompanying figures are 

 based on an adult male specimen, 1080 mm. wide, which M'as 

 trawled off Babel Island. A second larger example in the 

 Australian Museum, from Port Jackson, differs only in having 

 the spiny tubercles on the tail more numerous, and extending 

 a little farther forward ; it has also tAvo enlarged tubercles 

 with upstanding spines on the median line of the back of the 

 tail between the ventral fins and the spine. 



These specimens are evidently identical with D. hrevi- 

 caudatus, Hutton, Avhich has been recently figured by Waite, 

 though they differ from his diagnosis in having the snout a 

 little prominent instead of " scarcely distinct " ; in this 

 detail, however, they agree better with Hutton's original 

 description. 



The Port Jackson specimen referred to above was labelled 

 D. pastinaca, Linnseus, but that species, according to Dayi, 

 has a different shape, and much larger eyes than the Austra- 

 lian ray. It is almost certain, also, that all the records of 

 D. pastinaca from New South Wales really refer to D. brevi- 

 caxidatus. A second large species from Eastern Australia, 

 D. thetidis, Ogilby^, appears to differ mainly in having 

 numerous tubercles on the back. 



Loc. — Twenty miles east of Babel Island, Bass Strait, 60 

 fathoms ; March, 1914. 



Dasyatis FLuvioRUM, Ogilby. 



(Plate xvi., fig. 1 ; Plate xvii., fig. 2.) 



Dasyatis fluvionim, Ogilby, Proc. Roy. Soc. Qld., xxi., 

 1908, p. 6. 



Mr. Ogilby has very kindly lent me an authentic example 

 of this species for examina^ion, which I have figured here. 

 It is a little smaller than the typical specimen, and differs from 

 it somewhat in the proportiorj-. of the disc, and the detailed 

 arrangement of the scapular spines. The tail, also, has no 

 scattered prickles on the sides. 



1. Day— Fish. Gt. Brit. Ireland, ii., 1880-1884, p. 350, pi. clxxv. 



2. Ogilby in Waite — Mem. Austr. Mus., iv., 1899, p. 46. 



