FURTHER NOTES ON NEW JERSEY FISHES. 129 
Raja ocellata (Mitchill). 
Big Spotted Skate. 
Head 3% in body, measured from tip of snout to base of ven- 
tral behind; snout 114 in head; eye 7; width of mouth 2; inter- 
nasal space 24% ; bony interorbital region 2% ; interspiracle region 
21/,); space between anterior pair of gill-openings 1'/,); space 
between posterior pair of gill-openings 15% ; space between origins 
of ventrals 1°/,; greatest width of ventral, to end of anterior 
lobe, 114; base of first dorsal 2*/,; base of second dorsal 2% ; 
length of disk from tip of snout to tips of anterior ventral lobes 
less than its width by space equal to that from tip of snout to 
front of mouth; tail measured from point opposite posterior 
basal edges of ventrals, a little less than length of disk, or for 
a space about equal to half of snout. Disk very broad. Head 
well depressed. Snout firm, tip but little flexible and median 
fontanel level. Eve near last third in length of head, elongate 
and depressed above. Canthus well depressed. Mouth trans- 
verse below, dental edge well convex, or slightly double convex. 
Teeth about 60 series in upper jaw. Lips thin, upper scarcely free 
and only edges of posterior flaps fringed. Nostrils large, just out- 
side exposed width of mouth, sending back a groove to corner of 
mouth and curving posteriorly towards its fellow behind this. 
Interorbital space broad, depressed concavely and more or less 
flattened medianly. Gill-openings rather small. Spiracles broad, 
their width about % of eye. Body very roughened, with rather 
large posteriorly-directed thorns above, especially submarginally 
on disk. On anterior part of disk they are much smaller, and 
reach their greatest development on posterior lobe. All along 
anterior lateral margin of disk a narrow band of minute asper- 
ities. ‘Tip of snout and each ramus of nostrils and supraorbital 
ridges covered with rather large thorny tubercles. A median 
series of minute thorns begins just after spiracles and persists 
till opposite origins of ventrals, after which entire median upper 
surface of tail is smooth on longitudinal depression to origin 
of first dorsal. Beginning on back anteriorly, and shortly after 
9 MU 
