t 
134 PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 
base of each pectoral, each surrounded by a pale ring and in turn by 
another dark one. Head with black cross-bars. The two sexes entirely 
similar in color. 
This species is not uncommon in the Bay of Monterey. We have 
obtained eight examples, which agree with each other very closely. 
One of these is a female, about 18 inches in length, in which the ovaries 
are immature. The other females are about 30 inches in length, and 
the ovaries are fully matured, containing eggs. The males are about 
30 inches long, likewise bearing evidences of maturity. These speci- 
mens are now in the United States National Museum. This species is 
readily distinguished from the two others known from the Pacific coast 
by its obtuse snout and its rough skin. 
The Raia binoculata Girard is the common skate of the Pacific coast, 
and is brought in in large numbers to the San Francisco markets. In 
color it is uniform light brown, with a black ring near the base of each 
pectoral, and usually a dusky crescent on each ventral. The pectoral 
ocellus is often obscure, and sometimes can hardly be traced in pre- 
served examples; in living specimens it is generally conspicuous. 
The skin in the male is entirely smooth above, except the anterior edge 
of the pectorals, the bony part of the snout, and the larger spines on 
the front part of the pectorals, the supraocular region, a few (one to 
Six) on the scapular region, and a series along the median line of the 
tail. There are two or three detached spines usually along the side of 
the tail. The claw-like pectoral spines are also present. The females 
have, in addition, a lateral series of spines on the tail and some prickles 
on the posterior part of the pectorals, the larger spines found on the 
pectorals of the male being wanting. The actual length of the snout 
in RK. binoculata is not much greater than in AR. stellulata, but its form 
is different, the disk being anteriorly acuminate, bounded by concave 
lines, its length being more than three times the interocular space. 
Male and female examples of this species, with wipe eggs, or well- 
developed claspers, are about two feet long. 
Still another ray is known to us from a female example from Mon- 
terey about 50 inches in length. It agrees with R. binoculata in every 
respect, except in the form of the snout, which is extremely long, 
acuminate, and pointed, its length nearly four times the interorbital 
width. The anterior outline of the disk on each side of the snout forms 
a nearly uniform concave curve, it being scarcely at all undulated. 
These differences are shown by the appended table of measurements. 
We consider this at present a variety of Raia binoculata, although such 
variations in the length of the snout are unusual in the same species. 
Still another form is known to us from two examples, a male and a 
female, each about 6 feet in length, taken at Monterey. This form must 
be considered as the Raia cooperi Girard, as the very imperfect descrip- 
tion of the latter species agrees in all essential respects with these 
specimens. / 
