igog.] N. Annandale : Report on the Batoidei. 45 



Adult specimens measure about 34 cm. in total length and about 17 cm. across the 

 disk.' Numerous specimens have been taken off the Orissa coast by the " Golden 

 Crown,' ' and I have recently had an opportunity of examining many living ones on the 

 beach at Puri, where large numbers are caught daily in seine-nets worked from the 

 shore during calm weather. Two points at once become clear as a result of the ex- 

 amination of fresh specimens, (i) that it was impossible to separate Henle's N archie 

 indica from N . timlei , Bloch and Schneider, on the ground of the shape of the disk, 

 and (2) that the specimens examined fell into two very distinct groups separated 

 from one another not onh' by colour but also by size. 



As regards the first of these points, the variation in the outhne of the disk is re- 

 markably wide and does not appear to be correlated with any difference in size, sex, 

 or coloration. It is due mainly to differences in the development of the pectoral fins, 

 the rays of which vary greatly not only in length but also as regards their position on 

 the body. 



Another point in which variation is very marked is the size of the eyes as com- 

 pared with that of the spiracles. Occasionally the eyes are nearly as large as the spir- 

 acles, sometimes they have not more than half the su])erficial area of these structures. 



The size and proportions of the dorsal and caudal fins are also variable. 



As regards the important question of coloration, variation exists as regards the 

 size and regularity (or otherwise) of the spots on the dorsal surface, which in one set of 

 specimens are always present. 



Da5% in the " Fauna " and in the Fishes of India, remarks that some specimens 

 have no spots on the dorsal surface and that the absence of spots is not due to age, sex 

 or locality. These statements are fully borne out by the large series of living and 

 preserved specimens I have seen ; but I do not think that the two forms are specifically 

 identical and have therefore lieen forced to describe the immaculate one as a new 

 species. Unfortunately it is the one figured by Da^' as typical of N. timlei. 



Narcine timlei is very sluggish in its movements. I have failed repeatedly to 

 induce it to give an electric shock even when it was in a bucket of sea-water. 



Narcine bnnmea, sp. nov. (PI. iii<;, fig. 2.) 



N. timlei. Day, Fishes of India, pi. cxcii, fig. j ; Fann. Brit. Ind., Fishes, vol. i, 

 fig. 18, p. 45. 



Closely related to A'', timlei, from which it differs in the following characters: (i) 



coloration, (2) size, (3) form of the teeth, (4) outline of the free edge of the 



nasal flap, and (5) form of the processes in the mouth. 



(i) The dorsal surface is of a warm chocolate-brown without spots, the ventral 



surface creamy white. A narrow margin of the latter shade runs round 



the disk, being more distinct anteriorly than posteriorlv ; the dorsal and 



caudal fins, as well as the lateral ones, are edged with greyish white. 



' Day's statement that this species grows to at least iS inches in total length (Fishes 0/ India, 

 vol. ii, p. 733) is perhaps due to a confusion with some species of Torpcdv. Judging from old specimens 

 in the Indian Museum, such a confusion actually existed in his diagnoses. 



