Holt and Calderwood — Report on the Rarer Fishes. 395 



Raia blanda (nobis). The Blonde. (Littoral). 



Ramblanda(R.&C., M.S.), Holt, " Journ. Marine Biol. Assoc," vol. iii,, 



No. 3, p. 181. 

 Raia maculaia (ipart), . . . Couch, " Brit. Fish.," p. 104. 



„ „ (part), . . . Day, " Fish. Great Brit.," ii., p. 345, pi. clxxii. 

 Rata asterias (part), . . . Moreau, " Poiss. Franc." 

 Raiabrachyura{'i), . . . Lafont, " Soc. Linn. Bord.," xxviii., 1873, pi. 25. 



Diagnosis of Species. — Reaches a width of over 30 inches. Males become 

 mature at a width of about 24 inches. The egg-purse has a length of about 

 5i inches, exclusive of attachment processes. Anterior profile obtusely rounded, 

 the extremity of the snout projecting as a short semicircular process, except 

 in adult males, where it is more or less conical. Anterior margin of disk twice 

 projecting in front of a line drawn from the tip of the snout to the angle of 

 the pectoral fin, the convexities most marked in adult males ; the outer margin 

 would meet at about a right angle. Width of the disk about 25 per cent, 

 greater than in its length, and about 30 per cent, less than the total length ; 

 the tail slightly the longer in the male. The distance between the nostrils 

 equal to, or rather less than their distance from the snout. The length of the 

 snout from 4f (in young) to nearly 5^ times (in adults), and the distance between 

 the tip of the snout and the anterior edge of the coracoid from 2^ (in young) 

 to 2yV times (in adults) in the width of the disk. The length of the eye from 

 li times (in young) to twice (in adults), in the distance between the supra- 

 orbital ridges, which is equal to, or (in large examples) greater than the combined 

 length of the eye and spiracle. Teeth small, obtuse in females and in immature 

 males ; sharply pointed in adult males ; arranged in from less than 60 to over 90 

 rows in the upper jaw, as follows : — 



In specimens about 9 inches across the disk, about 66 rows. 

 16 ,, ,, ,, 74 



The supra-orbital ridges have usually a few small spines at each end. Small 

 spines along the rostral ridges, and a spine on each shoulder in young, and some- 

 times in half -grown, examples. A row of spines runs along the median dorsal line 

 from behind the head. In young examples three or four spines of this row are in front 

 of the shoulder. In half-grown and adult examples spines frequently are absent 

 from in front of the shoulder ; if present, very small. In males they are usually 

 absent from in front of the pelvic region. A row of spines is situated on each 



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