Holt and Calderwood — Report on the Rarer Fishes. 397 



miglit not be arrived at through stages in which there were no possibility of 

 distinguishing the two, and, therefore, that such difference as existed was of 

 specific rather than varietal value. Accordingly, in drawing up the preliminary 

 reports, no attempt was made to separate the pale from the dark fish (though 

 some allusion was made to the matter),* and, indeed, it would have been impossible 

 to do so with even approximate correctness. 



In discussing the matter with Dr. Griinther, to whom we are indebted for much 

 valuable advice and information in connection with this Paper, he expressed the 

 opinion that there must be two species, and referred to a record by Dr. Day of 

 the occurrence in British waters of a ray designated by him as R. punctata (Risso) 

 Dr. Griinther considered the identification incorrect, and the record is further 

 confused by a want of agreement between the description and the specimen in 

 Day's collection to which it appears to refer. t 



The description makes the teeth "larger " than in the Homelyn, whereas they 

 are in reality smaller, and in this, as in other respects, the specimen agrees with 

 the large pale forms from the west of Ireland. Owing to the great size it was 

 only possible to preserve the jaws of some of these examples, and even in this 

 respect our material is less complete than might be wished. Fortunately, how- 

 ever, we have again met with the fish in the North Sea, and have obtained a series 

 which puts its specific distinctness from the Homelyn beyond doubt. 



The two species are sufficiently unlike each other, at equal sizes, to be distin- 

 guished at a glance, but the distinctive characters do not admit of very terse defi- 

 nition, and the diagnosis which we have drawn up is accordingly somewhat 

 unweildy. Still, long as it is, we think there it need of a few further remarks. 



The colouration, no doubt, is the feature which most readily arrests the eye in 

 any species, and that of the Blonde (a vernacular designation) differs conspi- 

 cuously from that of many Homelyns, in that the ground is paler and the spots 

 smaller, more numerous, and more universally distributed than in the Homelyn. 

 Among fish taken on the same ground, and quite fresh, the Blondes, and especially 

 the large ones, are always paler than the Homelyns ; but, in a casual market 

 assortment, from various grounds and in various stages of freshness, this difference 

 is not invariably apparent. The spots are never so large in the Blonde as they 

 may be in the Homelyn, and are always close together; but we have seen a 

 Homelyn that could not be distinguished from a Blonde by these markings alone. 

 Moreover the spots came very close to the margin of the disk, the unspotted border 

 being very much narrower than is usual in this species ; still, they did not actually 

 reach the posterior margin of the wing, as they always appear to do in Blondes. The 



* Holt, " Sci. Proc. Eoy. Dub. Soc," vol. vii., 1892, p. 427. 



j- The specimen was not labelled at the time it came into the possession of the British Museum. Its 

 identity with the specimen described must therefore remain in doubt. 



